Dragonball Alternates
by shadowwriter01
Summary: A dangerous threat from ancient times has returned and is putting all known universes at danger. Many worlds and timelines and a number of special beings are meant to be involve in the coming events. Under them are the young warrior named Trunks and the two beings he had once known as his greatest enemies.
1. Chapter 1: Ultimate Warrior

Dragonball DBZ and GT belong to Akira Toryama, nothing of it is mine.

xxccc

This is my first story of Dragonball. The plot will span a few different timelines. One of the most important will be the Mirai future-world.

While a part playing after the end of GT will be very prominent in the first few chapters, this is not really a post GT fic. The story will concentrate more on other dimensions later on.

* * *

**Dragonball Alternates  
**

Timelines, alternate dimensions, even parallel universes, there were many of them. And there were some beings, only a few, who could watch into this different worlds.

Some of them were the infamous God of Destruction Beers and his mysterious master Whiz and to some limits the Kaioshin and others.

Next to the 12 known universes, that were completely different and separated realities, there were in first line the many `timelines´, altered variations of the same basis universe.

Most if not all of this words had gods of one kind or the other, Gods of Creation, Gods of Destruction and other higher beings. Of course there was also a good chance of other planes somewhere where the rules were completely. Some even believed that there was some kind of Super God out there who was watching over **all** these realities. But that was something nobody could truly say for sure.

Many of these beings were able to see into other dimensions and they were using this gift to watch themselves and others.

Now, recently however another entity had emerged that had developed this ability. This one was not a god or even another supernatural being.

It was something completely else, something not of natural heritage, artificial...

...and it was watching.

For the moment this being was taking interest in a certain one of this many realities.

xxx

Somewhere in one of this worlds was in this moment a single figure standing in a large dark-shadowed cave-complex.

This young man was a half-sayan, the last who existed in his universe. He was wearing a blue capsule-corp jacket and dark grey trousers. Strapped on his back he was carrying a sword. And he had strange colored blueish, nearly purple hair.

Around him were several mechanical devices, one of them a large wide screen, otherwise only in some distance the walls of the cave.

"Now let me show you what I have gathered out there Trunks," someone said to him. It was a monotonous sounding voice, coming out of the dark around him.

xxxxxxx

_`Present´- timeline, 23 years after the Cell Games_

While the Saiyajin known as Son Goku or Kakarot was somewhere in space, following Shenlong to an unknown place, at the same time on Earth other things were happening.

xxx

Artificial Human Number Seventeen opened his eyes.

The sky, the forest, it was the normal world, Earth, a regular landscape, recreated by the Dragonballs in it´s former state. Like king Yemma had told him. Nothing was to see of the destruction that had happened here anymore. He was lying at the border of a forest, very close to a city that had been lying in ruins only a few minutes earlier. That meant of course the parts of it that had not been completely wiped out. Now it had been restored, just like himself, by the Dragonballs.

It was a city that by all rights hadn´t existed anymore, it hadn´t because he had destroyed it. Not willingly, not on his own accord, he had been forced, manipulated. He had not been himself, in the truest sense of the word.

As he looked around, he saw something else lying on the ground, a few meters next to him. It was a body, an android, wearing a dark shirt, ripped jeans, sport shoes and a orange bandana, just like him, exactly like him.

The body was looking exactly like himself, another version of himself, like a clone. Nearly like a mirror image it was identical in every way, every way except one.

The copy had no life in it anymore. It was completely functional, he could feel that, but the mind, the intelligence, the soul if you wanted to call it that, it was just not there.

The being before him was Neo 17 or simply Hellfighter, as he was sometimes also called by the two madmen who had created him. He was meant to be not only a exact double of him, but in fact a complentation, a part of himself, but in the worst possible way.

This Android had been designed to make him stronger to bring out his full potential, but also to control him, to become a part of him. To take him over and finally to merge with him into a single being, Super 17, one that was meant to be under the absolute control of this two.

As far as it came to Doctor Gero and his new partner Doctor Myuu this other Android was a part of him, of Android 17, of their `ultimate creation´, like a lab experiment. His opinion to all that had never been asked by either of them, not years ago, as he had first been referted into a cyborg and certainly not now.

But they had overseen one thing, **he** was the one who decided who he was and not them. Even if sometimes, as it seemed, he needed a little bit of help to realize it. He thought about 18 and a surge of anger came over him.

Seventeen was looking into this lifeless eyes, otherwise completely identical to his own.

It was just like King Yemma had said, it was nothing than an empty husk now.

He remembered, remembered everything that had happened. Doctor Gero and Doctor Myuu, Hell, the very place where he himself had once send Gero to and from where he and his allies were now trying to escape, his clone, the copy of him they had created. All of that came now once again back to him.

How the copy had been controlling his mind, how it had used him to attack people, to kill Krillin, the human his sister had married, to attack his sister, to destroy this city.

On top of that this copy had, by controlling him, been able to create a gateway between the dimensions and literally opening the gates of Hell, allowing Gero, Myuu and all the long dead opponents the Z-Fighters had defeated over the years to return to the living world. Until they had been beaten once again at least.

But still the chaos they had managed to cause, both here and in the afterlife was terrible.

xxx

He remembered how he was standing before King Yemma, the guardian of the afterlife after had Son Goku killed him. Or maybe you should rather say after he **let** Son Goku and his own sister kill him.

In the end he had gained enough control to overcome Gero´s and Myuu´s programming and hold his other self back, if only for some time. It was enough to show them an opening.

Some time after he had died then, the afterlife ruler was now looking at him with grim and worried expression.

In fact he had been dead for some time now, but after the `mass breakout´ from Hell that Gero and Myuu had iniciated with his unwilling help and he had heard rumors that there was also another crisis going on, they needed somewhat longer to bring everything back under control. As far as you could call their current situation this.

It hadn´t been the first time that he was standing before the guardian, by far not. He had been here after Cell had absorbed him and he had been here after Buu had blown up the planet.

But now it was the first time both of them were facing a real dilemma.

"Well, what shall I do with you?" King Yemma thought aloud, asking the serious question. "I hope you realize in what difficult situation we are with you," he put it.

That was an understatement as it would later turn out.

"You can not really be blamed for the most of your recent negative actions, for being under mind control," King Yemma told Seventeen, while he was reading in a thick book that seemed to contain the rules of the afterlife.

"Actually, since you had a hand in stopping your artificially created counterpart. Then you took control of the fusion, you were actually the one who caused Super Seventeen´s downfall. You may in fact get a bonus for heroic deeds, but it is complicated.

And that is only the purely bureaucritical part of it," the large otherworld deity told him.

"Ahm, what do you mean by that?" Seventeen asked him a bit insecure.

"What he means by that," another voice was to hear, he recognized it as the one of Piccolo, the former God of Earth and creator of the original Dragonballs who had died a few months earlier, "is that you quite possible won´t stay long anyway," he said. "You wanted to see me?" the Namekian now addressed King Yemma.

"Ah yes, we have something to talk about," the large underworld deity responded.

"Ah, nice to see you again," 17 greeted Piccolo. "It seems we are both dead. You mean that the Z Fighters will use the Dragonballs to bring me back?" he questioned.

"If we are lucky," he replied. "Do you have any idea what is going on on Earth right now? The Dragonballs have gone out of control and manifested themselves into 7 dangerous creatures that are threatening to destroy everything."

"Then let us hope that Son Goku and the others will be able stop them," 17 stated, "and that they manage to do it this time without messing up," he added.

"Goku, Gohan and Vegeta have saved us many times," Piccolo reminded him.

"And how many of this time it were his own actions that had allowed this threats to rise in the first place?" he responded.

The Namekian looked as if he wanted to say something in return, but they were interrupted.

"There is still **another** problem that we have," King Yemma stated. "Your double," he said to Seventeen, "is not here."

"What?" 17 exclaimed. "What do you mean he is not here?"

"Just this. We have realized a short time ago that the soul of your doppelganger had not been registered anywhere," the afterlife-ruler informed them.

"And you only found about about this **now**?" Piccolo asked him.

"Oh excuse me, but we had just two universal crisises going on here," Yemma replied sarcastically, "so you understand that the question what had happened to a single soul was not exactly high on our list of priorities."

"Okay okay, I understand that," the Namekian responded. "I guess you want me to look around in Hell if I can find our missing Android," he questioned.

"Exactly."

"Hell?" 17 asked.

"Well, Picollo here had recently `volunteered´ to go down there to keep an eye on all the villians and keep them from causing that sort of trouble again," Yemma stated. "I have allowed him to come out for a short time because I wanted to talk to him about this."

"Do I even want to know," Seventeen asked the Namek.

"I will explain later," Picollo replied.

In the end Goku and Vegeta **did** succeed. They stopped this new threat known as the Shadow Dragons. Afterwards the Dragonballs had been used to turn the Earth back to how it had been before and bring everybody back to life.

xxx

And so he returned.

Seventeen was checking himself. Biochemical and Technological implants inside his body were running multiple analyses. He was unharmed, undamaged. His powerlevel? was gigantic, even when he was currently not merged with his counterpart.

If at all he had the impression that he was even a bit stronger than during the last fight with Eighteen and the Z-Fighters, just before the fusion with his double.

He was looking at his right hand and was then looking at the deactivated Android lying before him, concentrating.

Suddenly it´s eyes returned to life, flashing in a red color, just like his own and it´s right arm started to move, suddenly and fitfully. Seventeen moved his right arm and the arm of the clone-cyborg made at the same moment the very same movement, nearly exactly mirroring his own.

It was like a bizarre mimicry of a living being, a doll those movements were directed by someone else. The situation was reversed now. At the same time he saw flashes of electricity sparking around the clone´s body and also his own hand.

The connection between them was still active. This proofed it. But now when Hellfighter´s mind was gone, **he** was the one controlling both bodies.

"It looks like I am the one in control now bastard," he said with a grin to silent the form of the now mindless robot.

Seventeen remembered back. He knew, as he had first been created, turned into a artificial being, he was meant to be the strongest fighter on Earth and more. For some time Doctor Gero had been working on his intended greatest project, an practically invincible super-being, the Ultimate Warrior.

He, Android 17 had been the latest attempt. Despite all of Gero´s attempts to keep him and 18 under his thumb and be `good´ little creations, he had found out far more about the mad scientists plans for him when he would ever have wanted.

He was meant to be this `Ultimate Fighter´ and on some level, he openly admitted, he had actually wanted to be it. But not to Gero´s terms, not under his control.

What Seventeen also knew however, was that back then he had only brought out a small part of his full potential. Gero never had the chance to fully realize it, not until now. Seventeen had killed him before was able to complete his work on him or his sister.

He knew hand in hand with the physical changes would also come the mental one and by the time Doctor Gero would have brought him to his full intended power, he would have also managed to bring him and 18 fully under his influence and turn them completely into his slaves. So he had killed him **before** he could finish his work.

At this point he and his sister had already been stronger than any other Android model they knew of and since their transformation was based on bio-engineering, they even had the potential to grow stronger. It had been enough or so he thought. He had been wrong.

What he had not been aware of was that there were `other candidates´ who still existed.

One of them had been Cell, another `Ultimate Android´ who had, as he later found out, stolen a time-machine and travelled back into the past. As it looked Doctor Gero, or at least a possible future version of him, had changed his mind and planned for him and 18 to get absorbed by that Bio-Android.

Later after Cell had been defeated, he and 18 had began what you would call peaceful lives. He had started to work as a ranger, living in the woods and otherwise doing whatever he wanted, even having a family and children.

Despite that he had in the last twenty years also tried more than once to find a way to achieve this old goal, to become what he was meant to be, the most powerful in the universe

and if it was only out of spite against Gero and Cell. He wanted to reach this power by himself, without his so called `creator´.

When he had not been working in the wild-park territory, taking care of things or spending time with his family or just being off and doing whatever he felt like, he had been training regulary.

His reasoning for that was simple. Years ago, when he had first been converted into an Android, he had lost everything. All memories of the time `before´ were gone. Great parts of his mind had been reconstructed, filled with the desire to fight, to defeat and kill Son Goku, while at the same time his organs, skin, bones and his entire cell structure had been altered, manipulated, enhanced through genetic engineering and completed with biomechanical components...

...to something that could barely be described as human anymore and certainly not as the same being as before.

The human he had once been did´t exist any more. He was by all rights dead. For his power he had paid with his old existence. His mind as it was today was a mixture of Gero´s basic programmings, the lingering remains of his human self and more than anything else, the decision he had made over the years, his own choices.

He was completely aware that he had been created from a young man named Lapis, twin brother of Lazuli. It was a knowledge that he and Eighteen had found out several years ago. But it was a pure factual knowledge. He had no details, barely any personal information and even that little that he had felt hollow. There was no personal connection anymore.

All what was left for him from this life was his sister, who had gone through the **same** process and even this had Gero and his allies nearly destroyed now.

The Saiyans, Son Goku and Vegeta, thought they deserved to be the strongest? **He and 18**, they had literally died for it, in a way that not even the Dragonballs could reverse. So when he and his sister had paid such a horrend price, at least he wanted to have **his** end of the deal.

**Now** he had reached it. He was the most powerful. He was far stronger than Cell could ever hope to be.

He had even defeated Son Goku, at least before 18 interferred, but the victory tasted like ash in his mouth.

In a twisted sort of irony it was in a sense all pointless now. He didn´t reach this power by himself. It was all given to him, **no** forced upon him, by Gero and Myuu. He **was** the strongest being in the universe but it was only because of what **they** did to him. Once again the old man had gotten one over him, at least until their last meeting as his luck run out..

He didn´t knew if he should laugh or be sad at the memory how Myuu had finally betrayed Gero and ordered him and his counterpart after their fusion to kill him. Controlled by the programming and Hellfighter´s presence he had no choice. But still it felt good killing Gero again.

Seventeen knew the specifics of the process that had transformed him into Super 17 perfectly well. The first stage of the transformation had been only very subtle, only the thoughts of his doppelganger that were reaching out to his own, unnoticed at first, slowly corrupting and subverting his own, until they finally took over.

In the next phase his strength had grown. Hellfighter had been especially designed to realize his dormant power and bring it out, finally.

This had in a twisted sense actually been another slap in the face. Even if he had not trained a single day since the Cell Games, this device would have powered him up to exactly the same level. It would have only taken maybe a half hour longer. 20 years worth of training, for nothing. Of course the procedure to unleash his full potential came right **after** the one to control his mind.

Then **finally** came the fusion, merging the two bodies into a single practically invincible fighter.

But there was more about his new transformation. It was not just raw power, not just about physical strength.

17 picked up the other Android and then he lifted off into the air carrying the live- and motionless body of his double in his arms. He knew exactly what he had to do, as little as he liked it. But he had no other choice.

While he was flying over the landscape, he was using another one of his new abilities.

He concentrated.

"18," Android 17 silently called out. He concentrated his thoughts on his sister and his body automatically reacted and send out a mental call.

It wasn´t however true telepathy, but a mental connection made possible by both electronic and bio-chemical implants in his and his sister´s brains and a device inside his now mindless double.

This wasn´t the first time he used this ability, by far not. As his double had been controlling him, it had used it to coordinate their attacks.

It was meant as a tool to communicate and to **control**. Hellfighter had been using it against him, to turn him into his and Doctor Myuu´s puppet and under their influence he himself had used it against 18.

But finally they **both** had resisted, sadly however at different times. Eighteen had broken the control when hid double had used him to kill Krillin as the human fighter had nearly succeeded to bring him back to his senses, nearly. The attempt had cost him his life. Hellfighter saw him as a threat. And while he had not succeeded, 17 certainly felt a level of respect for the man for trying.

He himself broke free as his sister confronted him a short time later as Super 17 and reminded him who he was. Being 18, she of course did it in the most rude and demanding way possible, he grinned. You just had to love her, 17 thought.

To say that his sister had been pissed off when they last met would have been an understatement. She was positively furious about Krillin´s death. It was something he was understanding all too good, now at least, if it had been his wife.

But that had not been his doing, not really. He only hoped that she would listen. Well, she was smart, but also often incredible stubborn, so he would have to see.

"Eighteen, do you hear me?" he once again send out his message.

_"Seventeen?"_ he finally heard her answer in his head. It was eighteen´s voice, however actually a mental representation of it instead of actual sound.

Her `voice´ was mixed with sorrow, anger, deep cutting doubt and cold rage. It was no surprise. Part of it might also come from the simple fact that he was using the ability of his hated double, he reminded himself and that 18 strictly seen had no way to know for sure who exactly she was talking to, **him** or his copy.

"Eighteen," he repeated his message, "it is me, truly me, not Gero´s new Android. I am myself again."

_xxx_

Many miles away Krillin, who had recently also been resurrected by the Dragonballs, was only starring confused at his wife who just seemed to have phased out somehow.

In fact of course she was holding a mental conversation.

_xxx_

_"Why should I believe you,"_ she replied coldly. _"I remember all too good what happened and the last time I checked my brother was not a telepath."_

Seventeen cringed.

"It is true that I am still connected with the other Android, at least in body. But he is gone. His mind is no longer there. It **is** me," he assured her. "You can convince yourself very soo when we are meeting."

_"You want to come here?"_ she asked, obviously with a bit of shock.

_xxx_

Miles away she was actually saying this part out loud, that only caused her husband and her daughter and Master Roshi who had just entered the room to look at her even more curious.

Krillin and Muten Roshi had by now figured out what was going on. They had both by now witnessed enough telepathic conversations to recognize the signs. The only question was **who** was she talking to?

_xxx_

"Not exactly," 17 replied, "I am on my way to Capsule Corporation and I am having the body of my double with me. I need them to take a look at it."

_"What?"_ 18 asked now.

"Look," 17 continued, "it is as I said, the mind of the other Android had just vanished. I don´t know why. Not even King Yemma could explain why. I need to know what is going on with my double and I need to be sure that his mind **stays** gone and the people at Capsule Corp. are the only ones who can find out for sure."

_"The Saiyans might attack you on sight if you just show up there,"_ she stated. _"You realize that?"_

"They won´t," he responded, "not if **you** tell them exactly that I am coming and **why**. Can you do that 18? I need to make sure that he will not return and control me again. You understand why I have to do this right, after what I...what **he** did to you?"

Eighteen, miles away, had now tears in her eyes.

_"Yes, I do,"_ she answered.

"Thanks 18," he told her, "We will talk about all this, I promise."

_"It won´t be pretty,"_ she stated.

_"No it won´t,"_ he replied. A grin started to form on his face.

He thought back about how he taken control of their fused state after Super 17 had been confronted by 18, how he had then distracted his double. How he had kept them both concentrated on his sister, the accusations she was shouting to them and on their own internal conflict, while he knew all too well that Goku would get up again and preparing his next attack.

Then he recalled the memory that happened only a few seconds afterwards, the picture as Super 17 saw Goku´s final strike coming to him and as he was forcing his double to stay in place and take the attack. And he remembered his feeling at that moment, horror coming from his artificial clone and triumph from himself.

The smile on his face actually deepened.

"I got you," Seventeen said quietly to his still liveless double.

xxxxxxx

"Mom," Marron said to her mother as she realized that she was crying.

"I understand 17," Eighteen spoke, still seemingly into thin air.

Krillin felt how his jaw dropped as he heard who his wife was talking to.

Eighteen´s gaze now turned back to her family.

"You have heard..."

"Your...your brother," Krillin stammered.

"Seventeen has been brought back to life. He is on the way to Capsule Corporation. 17, he is not longer under Gero´s and Myuu´s control, he is normal again."

"This is good...well very good," Krillin responded.

"...At least he said so," 18 stated a bit quieter.

xxxxxxx

It was less than a half hour later as 17 landed in front of the Capsule Corp. building.

Just as expected the group of four Sayans was waiting for him at the outside. None of them made any aggressive moves, but they all looked ready to defend themselves.

Seventeen calculated his chances. Trunks and Son Goten he knew were small fries. Gohan was strong, by his knowledge however he was seriously undertrained and at least after his latest power up he should be absolutely no match for him.

Vegeta on the other hand. He was clearly the most powerful of them. Out of all of them he was also the only one who had mastered the so called godly Ki and integrated it into his own. The only other who had managed to do that was Son Goku.

Seventeen knew however that he was stronger than Vegeta in his normal state. During the last fight Hellfighter easily managed to hold him off while he was barely trying to fight.

But he wasn´t completely sure if he transformed. He was aware that with the power Vegeta had already reached, the SSJ state gave him only a relative small boost. So it was hard to say who would win between him and the Saiyan Prince.

The real question was if he was still able to transform in the Super Saiyajin 4 level? By what he had heard while he was in the afterlife, 17 wasn´t quite sure. **If **Vegeta could, he knew he could only match him by fusing with his double. This was something he wanted to avoid on all costs, at least until he was sure nothing would go wrong.

Anyway, he was here to **avoid** a fight anyway, unless he had no choice.

"I see your sister was right," Vegeta greeted him. "You **are** back."

"Then she has also told you that I am not here to fight," he responded. "**This** here is the guy responsible for all the trouble," he nodded to the Android he was holding in his arms, "and as you see he has not much to say right now."

"Well excuse me if I don´t just take your word for it," the Saiyan Prince replied.

"Okay, if you say so." Seventeen kneeled down and dropped the Clone-Android to the ground before them and held his now empty hand up in front of the four Saiyans. "See, I am peaceful. All I want is for Bulma to take a look at this cheap copy here."

"And why would you do that?"

"I thought that would be obvious even to you Vegeta. I want to make sure that he doesn´t suddenly wakes up, takes control of me again and uses me to kill you."

"You have to admit, he has a point here. That is certainly something we want to avoid, right?" Gohan pointed out.

"And who guaranties that he **won´t** suddenly wake up while my wife is working on him and attack her?"

"We can keep an eye on her the entire time," Goku´s elder son suggested.

In this moment two other persons were landing next to them, Eighteen and Krillin.

His sister was looking at Seventeen a bit insecure. Then her eyes fell on the Clone Android lying on the ground and he saw a barely hidden wave of hatred going through her expression.

"17," she said.

"18," he greeted her.

Neither of them said another word right now.

xxxxxxx

Parallel to all that however, someone else was following the events.

_`Mirai´-timeline,_ 23_ years after the appearance of the Androids_

"Why are you showing me this?" Trunks asked as he saw the events that were being displayed in detail on a screen before him.

For the last few hours now he had been following several events from the other timeline, had been watching the future of the past, of the world, he had himself once visited, that he in fact had helped to create.

Trunks, this Trunks, had lived a life quite different from his other self of that other reality. He had grown up in a world that was once dominated by the Androids 17 and 18, two alternate versions of the same beings he was watching right now.

Some of what he had just witnessed had been mind blowing, a bit just hillarious and some of it just plain frightening. He remembered his complete shock as he had seen Super 17 and even the other version of 18, how his hands had been actually shaking at the sight. Just how dangerous could these cyborgs have become.

He was lucky, more than lucky, he realized that the two Androids he had been fighting against had never even come close to that level.

What also astonished him however was just how different this two had become from the killing machines he knew from his world.

"Why? I wanted you to see," the monotonous voice answered. "I wanted you to understand what could have been and what is waiting out there, the things you **need** to know," the being told him.

"Why should I trust you?" Trunks asked him.

"Can you truly afford to ignore what I have to tell you?" the unknown asked.

The half Saiyan was in deep thought. He had to make a decision.

* * *

**To the continuity: **The story contains elements from both Battle of Gods and GT. Meaning both Goku and Vegeta have become SSJ God at one point, but have it completely integrated into their ususal ki at this point.

In the current timeline BoG took place 5 years after Buu, so 12 years after the Cell Games, GT 22 to 23 years after Cell.

What I also consider to have happened are Movie 9, a few months after Cell and the first Cooler Movie (but not the second) in the three years gap before the Androids.


	2. Chapter 2: Understanding

**Chapter 2**

It was by now a few hours ago that Seventeen had arrived.

After Vegeta had been convinced that it was safe, Bulma, with some assistance from her son Trunks, had very quickly agreed to take a look at the unconcious android-body. In fact she had been all too eager to do it after she had seen the clone-cyborg.

The whole time her husband and Gohan were practically looking over her shoulder to make sure that he was truly deactivated.

Vegeta´s and Bulma´s daughter Bra and Son Goten were also standing only a short distance away. In their case it was however more that they were curious, even if her father continued to claim that it was a bad idea for her to be anywhere close to `that thing´.

Eighteen and Krillin were also present, standing a few meters away from the the blue haired scientist and her `work´.

17 registered somewhere in his mind that his sister was wearing her hair once again a bit longer as she had done it the last time they had met. Somewhere in between the way it had been years ago and the short style he had seen when he was controlled by Hellfighter. Beside that she had one of her dark shirts, like the one when they had been acticated and blue jeans.

He had explained to them what had happened and what he had been told in the afterlife. How the soul of his doppelganger had simply disappeared, vanished.

It sounded more than strange to all of them.

"Are you completely sure that **this** guy even had a soul?" Son Goten questioned.

"All what lives and thinks has a soul according to King Yemma," 17 stated.

"Yes, Piccolo had once told me something similar," Gohan explained to them. "Every living being has a soul, so if his is not in the afterlife, there are only two possible explanations."

"Which are?" Seventeen asked.

"Either his sould had been lost on the way there or he is not truly dead."

17 wasn´t sure if he liked either of the two answers. But Goku had reduced their shared body to ashes. How could his double still have been alive after that?

Bulma was standing in front of Hellfighter´s body that was lying on a table.

At one side to her she was viewing data over a computer-screen, while at the other were lying the blueprints of Android 17 the Z-Fighters had found many years before.

"Well, I think I can say I have found out a few things," she finally announced. "I have to say it is an incredible advanced system, as expected from Doctor Gero and on top of that is alien technology integrated into it. I admit in the beginning I had also not known one end from the other. But after I had compared it with the old blueprint we have of you, things became clearer.

It has taken me still a few hours, but I have now figured it out. I am a genius after all," she proclaimed.

"And?" Seventeen asked a bit impatiently.

"And, is that all you have to say? I have been working for hours for you and that is all I get to hear?" she frowned.

"Listen, this might be all very interesting for you, but for me this is about my control of my own body and my life. So would you please just tell me what you have found out?"

"Okay, okay I understand that," she answered, now a bit more calmly. "Now what I can tell you so far is that this Android here is based on your own design and I don´t just mean his looks. But he is not simply a copy. Like you he is mostly organic, even if his level of mechanical parts is higher than your own. But in his case the cells are alien in origin, tsufuru to be precise.

It looks however as if his cellular structure was created to match and complete your own. Some of the enhancements in his body are missing in your and the other way around."

"Yes, I knew that. He was created to be a complementation of me. At least that was how Gero and Myuu put it," he commented.

"Interesting, especially in light of a few of the other things I have found. Inside his body and especially his brain, that seemed to be conceived to connect to and to override your own systems...and your mind," she stated after a short pause. "As far as I can tell it so far he was able to bound his own energy to yours, shut down or alter parts of your conscious thought and even replace them with his own."

Eighteen´s gaze instantly shot up as she heard this. She was looking at them with an visible sour expression.

"So Seventeen, I think it is save to say that you are officially innocent," Bulma announced.

"Thanks, I think," he answered. "By the way," 17 commented, "I am not exactly happy about the fact that you have been keeping **my** blueprints. But I guess in this case it has turned out to be paying off."

"Is there any way to make sure that something like that will not happen again?" Vegeta questioned.

"Only if the additional parts are staying active or are permanently integrated into 17´s systems," Bulma replied. "Otherwise, I don´t see how. For all we know Gero could just build a new copy in Hell. He has managed to do it once before after all."

"That means I have to stay connected to him or fuse," Seventeen asked, "and that forever? And what if his mind, whereever it had gone, should return to his body some day, then what?"

Bulma hesitated. She wasn´t quite sure either, she admitted.

"Maybe, if I find a way to integrate the missing part into your own body or to simply fuse your body´s without including your doubles brain and main CPU."

"Is something like that possible?" he asked.

"I...maybe, I am not sure."

"Maybe in that case it would be better if we just put an end to him here and now," Vegeta suggested. "Hey, it is nothing personal," he said to 17. "Believe me, I have nothing against you. Quite the opposite, you are a good sparring partner and they are rare." Especially now that Kakarot was not longer there, he thought. "But if you could be turned into a threat to us and our families. I am sure you understand."

Seventeen indeed understood, all too well. He had seen what he could be used for. If Bulma didn´t find a save way, maybe it was truly better if he returned to the afterlife. He thought about his own family.

"One moment," Eighteen spoke up, "since do **you** of all people have the right to accuse others of being a possible threat? Who was it again who had practically thrown me into Cell´s arms and put the entire world at risk?

Who had allowed himself to fall under Babidi´s influence just because he wanted to fight Son Goku, killed hundreds of people and freed the Demon Buu?

And who had become a host-body for that parasite Beby and made him ten times stronger than before? If we were worried about people who **might** become a danger, the first thing we should have done was **killing you**," she stated.

"Just a few days ago they were fighting each other to the death and now they are suddenly standing up for each other again," the Saiyan Prince commented, "just like brother and sister. I know that from me and Tarble when we were young." He grinned.

"Why you," 18 growled.

"Maybe you should stop playing the uncaring bastard Vegeta," Bulma interrupted them. "Nobody believes you that act anymore…not after they had seen you with Bra," she stated.

The young girl, who was looking nearly exactly like her mother, had now a smirk on her face that nearly mirrored that of her father from a few moments before.

Giggles were to hear from around them, in first line coming from Goten and Trunks and even Gohan.

"Is there something?" the Saiyan Prince exclaimed, while turning around to them.

"No...of course not Vegeta," Gohan replied, still smiling.

Next to them Eighteen was right now quickly leaving the room. Seventeen followed her only a few seconds later.

Krillin was looking after them. He had noticed that this entire situation was truly bothering his wife and he was about to follow her himself. But then he saw that 17 was already doing it.

He decided to wait. He would just talk to her a bit later. This two had not spoken to each other in a long time, at least when Seventeen was **not** being mind-controlled. It would probably be good for both of them.

Krillin thought back to when they had met Android 17 on that road in West City, the day he died the last time. He had known instantly that Seventeen had not been himself, especially after he claimed to act in the name of Doctor Gero and as he had heard this voice in Seventeen´s head. He was glad that Goku had showed showed him a few things about telepathy.

But obviously Eighteen had taken somewhat longer to fully realize what was going on. He would give this two their time together.

xxx

Seventeen found her standing in one of the empty corridors not far away from the lab. It was clear that something was seriously eating her up.

"Eighteen," he addressed her.

"Yes?"

"I only want you to know, I am sorry about Krillin and I..."

"**Don´t** say it," she interrupted him sharply, "don´t ever apologize for that. That made it sound as if you were responsible. But it wasn´t you, it was **him **and this two madmen who had ordered him."

"I am glad that you see it like this, but that isn´t everything, right?" he responded. "Now 18, as amusing as it was to see you getting one on Vegeta, I am sure his little comment was not the only reason you reacted like this."

"Oh, you realized," she replied with a strange mixture of sarcasm and sadness. "That is good. I in your place would have probably not noticed."

"What are you talking about?"

"Seventeen, I am a fool," she stated.

"Oh, it is nice that you have finally figured it out," he joked.

"17 that is not funny," she replied.

"Where you not the one who called herself a fool just a few moments ago?"

"When...when Krillin...died I...I hated you," she explained.

17 registered that she didn´t say, `when **you** killed him´.

"I was just so angry," she continued, "I actually wanted you dead...and..." Her voice faltered for a second. "I...I should have known what they had done to you. "

"Hey Eighteen, your husband had just been murdered, so I will give you some credit her and besides, it was still my body, my mind...even my memories. What **should** you have thought?"

"Maybe that some kind of creature had taken you over?" she responded. "Didn´t we had the same damned thing just a few months back, remember Beby?

Kami, thinking back it was so **obvious** that it wasn´t you talking. `You´ were praising Doctor Gero for heavens sake. Did you know that right after Cell had absorbed you, he had been trying to trick me? He had been speaking with your voice and tried to convince me to let him absorb me. But I knew instantly that it wasn´t you as he made exactly **that** mistake.

But this time I hadn´t figured out what was going on until I saw this Doctor Myuu standing next to you...and even then I had nothing better to do when to help Goku kill you. What kind of sister am I?"

"Don´t ever say that again Eighteen," he said sharply. "You knew perfectly well that I would have rather died when stayed under their control. And you reacted, in the only way that there was. I would have **expected** nothing else from you.

I might not have been myself but I remember exactly what happened. I remember how you confronted Super 17, how you managed to get into his head, like only **you** could do it. How you had outmanouvered them and beaten them in their own game. You had reached out to the parts of Super 17 and caused him to turn first against Doctor Myuu and then against himself. Without you I would have probably stayed a part of this abomination forever.

But you have reminded me who I was and helped me to break free. You were **brilliant**. Eighteen I am not quite sure how to tell you that but, I am proud of you. "

"Seventeen thank you," she said and wrapped her arms around him. He admitted he was caught a little bit off guard.

"Okay okay, that is enough," he responded. "Believe me Eighteen, if one of Gero´s creatures took you over like that, I would kill you as well, trust me."

"Oh thank you Seventeen," she answered, this time with a dose of sarcasm.

"Well, to be honest I am not happy either that my own sister can not tell the difference between me and one of Gero´s lackeys," he stated now. It was quite clear however that he was not longer being completely serious.

"But given the situation I understand that part," he said. "I admit I am not completely sure how I would have reacted if it had been my wife. By the way, the attempted mind-control might also be one of the reasons why you weren´t able to think completely clearly for a time."

"Yes, maybe," she replied, thinking about the possibility. Then she suddenly fully registered what Seventeen had just said. "Moment, **you** are married, you?" she asked.

"Yes I am."

"Since when?"

"A long time actually."

"**Before** or after you had visited us these years back?"

He only grinned.

"I should have known. Is there anything else I should know about you?"

"Well, I met her several years ago. We are working both in the Royal Wildlife Park in the Northern Area. I am the park ranger there. We have one daughter and adopted two boys."

Eighteen was starring at him for a few moments. Then she did something that he had really not quite expected from her right now. She broke out in halling laughter.

"You...you and..." she stammered, still snorting and shaking.

"Yes?" he finally asked.

"And there I thought we were quite different all this time," she stated.

"I just knew that you would react like this," he commented.

"You know, I want to meet my sister in law and your children," Eighteen told him.

"You mean sitting together for hours and talking about `old times´ and then probably going shopping for an entire day while the normal people under us have nothing to do but to wait?"

"Something like that."

"Okay, if you want to. By the way, if you can do me a favor, do you know where I can find here a phone?"

xxx

It was once again a few hours later. Bulma was continuing with her work and trying to find a way to cut 17 off from Gero´s influence permanently.

At the same time a sky-car was flying over the city and landing right in front of Capsule Corp. On board was a around middle-ages dark haired woman.

As soon as the vehicle had touched the ground, she jumped out, walked towards the building and used the doorbell.

After a few moments it was being opened by Bra.

"Yes?" she asked.

"Hello, my name is Mari Lar. I am looking for my husband and I have been told that he is here. "

"Let her in," another female voice came from inside the building.

"Okay Eighteen, if you say so," she answered.

The newly arrived woman suddenly looked up.

"18?" she questioned. She had a suspicion that she would find out a few new things very soon, but for the moment it was all forgotten as she saw 17 and literally threw herself into his arms and kissed him on the lips.

"Seventeen, I was so worried about you. You had suddenly acted to strange and then you just vanished and then all these terrible things happened, all those creatures that were attacking people and destroying cities. I was so worried about you," she told him with a flood of words. "But now you have made this phone call and told me you are **here** of all places and I didn´t knew what to think about it. Are you okay, is everything alright?"

She sounded maybe a bit histerical, okay more than a bit.

"Okay, calm down please," he interrupted her. "It is a long story. You remember the story I had told you about the scientist who had turned me into an Android and all this other things? He had managed to return to life and found a way to control me."

"What?" she yelled.

His wife was looking at him in complete bewilderment. Sure, she had seen and heard a few strange things since she had met him, but this story.

"But that is over now," Seventeen promised. "And by the way, would you please not do this in front of **them**."

She suddenly realized that she still had her arms wrapped around him and that they were surrounded by people, who had seen the entire display and she became bright red in the face.

"He...hello, I am Mari, I am Seventeen´s wife. I am of course normally not acting like this," she stated. "It is only, the things that happened in last time."

"I can imagine, I am Eighteen, his sister," she introduced herself.

For a short moment the woman froze.

"Wait, you have a sister," she then called out.

"Yes I have," he answered matter of factly.

"This are by the way my husband Krillin and my daughter Marron," 18 informed her.

"He...he had never told me about you," Mari stated.

"And me never about you. This leads to the question what else has he been hiding from us right?" Eighteen had a grinn around her mouth. "Maybe we should have a long talk with each other about what all we both know about 17´s life."

"I knew this would happen. That was exactly the reason why I have not told you about each other," he mentioned.

"Too late now brother," 18 remarked smiling.

In this moment Bulma was entering the room.

"Hey everyone, I think I have found a solution," she told them. "You should come over."

Without any hold ups they all followed her back into the lab.

"Are you coming," Krillin turned back asking Eighteen, who he had seen still standing at the same place, completely without movement for a few seconds. But he didn´t pay it much mind. He knew 18 was under much stress.

"Yes, I come," she said.

"Are you alright?" he asked her. "I know all this is hard for you."

What he didn´t see was how her eyes suddenly glew up in a red color, because her back was turned to him in this moment.

"Yes `beloved´," she answered, "everything is alright."

xxx

A few minutes later they were all assembled back in the lab, including Seventeen´s wife now.

She was starring horrified at the body that looked exactly like her husband. The others had by now filled her in into most of the rest of the story.

"And you can make sure that this will never happen again?" she asked Bulma.

"I am pretty confident that I can. I think I have found a way to merge the organic mass and the systems of the copy with 17 without the need for the mental complex."

"Can you tell how long this will take?" 18 wanted to know.

"Not for sure, but I would say at least a week."

"That is good," she replied. "Seventeen, I have a request."

"Yes?"

"I want to destroy it. His CPU, Bulma you said yourself it would not be needed." She turned toward the scientist.

"Yes, but?"

"Will it hinder your process if I destroy the body´s CPU?" she asked.

"No, as far as I can tell not."

"Then let me destroy it. Seventeen, I won´t find any peace as long as the systems of this Android are still intact. Please allow me to do it."

Eighteen begann to gather all her ki in the palm of her hand.

"Maybe this isn´t a bad idea anyway," Vegeta pointed out. "If there is the slightest chance that his mind might in fact return to the body somehow."

"Okay 18," Seventeen answered, "if that is your wish, do it."

"Thank you brother." She smiled.

Eighteen´s hand shot downwards, at the head of the clone Android. The ki concentrated in it had enough power to shatter entire continents and, no matter how well armored, without it´s own energy to protect it her hand ripped through it´s flesh, bone, metal and circuitry like through pasteboard.

"That would be one worry less," Vegeta commented as he saw the destroyed remains of Hellfighter´s brain structure.

"Yes indeed," 18 stated.

She was looking around in the room, from one of them to the other, as if looking for something. Finally her gaze stopped at one of the devices in one of the neighboring rooms that she could see through a glass window.

"Vegeta," she addressed the Saiyan Prince, "tell me something. This over there is the so called Burutsu-Wave-Emitter, right? It is sending out concentrated light-waves. This is the machine that had allowed you to become a SSJ4, is that correct?"

"Well yes," he replied in a grim tone, not exactly sure about the purpose of the question. It was quite obvious however that he didn´t like the fact that he had needed the help of a machine to reach that level.

"That is all I wanted to know." A grin formed on her face.

Eighteen raised her arm and without any warning she fired a ki blast right into the device.

Her shot not only completely destroyed the Emitter, it broke through the walls of the labs and chambers at that side of the building, obliterated everything in it´s path, including a few unlucky Capsule Corp employees who were simply vaporized by the power of the blast and then into the city and leveled several neighboring houses.

They all were starring at her in complete horror. There was no telling how many people had just been killed.

"What...what have you done?" Son Gohan shouted.

"Eighteen...what...why are you doing this?" Krillin stammered. His voice was nearly soundless from shock.

"Mother, what are you doing," Marron screamed.

She didn´t answer to any of them, even if a part in the back of her mind knew that she should. Instead she looked to Seventeen.

As their eyes met, he began to hear a voice in his head, but it wasn´t Eighteen´s. It was a voice that was very similar to his own, Hellfighter.

_"So my `other half´, this is how we meet again,"_ it said.

For a second 17 could not move, could not even think. His shock now was just as great as Krillin´s from a few moments before.

18 saw Seventeen´s wife standing close to him. Her arm was now pointing at them.

_"Tell me 17, doesn´t this situation seem familiar to you?"_ he again heard Hellfighter´s voice in his mind while Eighteen´s body acted.

His sister, no the creature that had taken control of her, fired a concentrated ki blast directly at Mari. Just like Krillin before, he realized.

In the last moment Seventeen jumped a few meters in front of her, activated his energy-field on a close range and blocked the shot. But the blast broke through his barrier.

He went to the knees from the impact, but with **all** his strength he was able to dissolve the remaining energy, barely.

"Seventeen," he could hear his wife shouting as he was hit.

The blast had been powerful, **very** powerful, he noticed. Before he had been merged with his double he had been powered up to his full potential.

He knew despite that Eighteen was very strong and only a few levels below him. That was actually a compliment to her since she didn´t get such a power upgrade. But she **was** below him. A blast from 18 shouldn´t have **such** a effect on him, unless, he had a thought, Hellfighter was able to unleash **her** potential as well.

Meanwhile Eighteen was turning her attention to the Saiyans.

Son Gohan, Goten and Trunks had by now transformed into Super Saiyajins, while Vegeta was standing in front of Bulma, obviously trying to protect her.

"I don´t know what is happening with you Eighteen," Gohan told her, "but this ends now."

"Be careful," Seventeen who was just struggling to come back to his feet called out. "I know now what happened to the mind of the other Android. He is controlling her."

"What?" Gohan exclaimed. But sadly in exactly this moment 18 moved. She caught him off guard and landed a punch on him that send him flying right through one of the walls that were not already broken down before.

Trunks and Goten took their combat stances.

"Now boys, why don´t you show me what you got," Eighteen finally spoke, her voice sounded cold and mocking.

They attacked at the same time, but `18´ evaded all the hits they were trying to land on her and then beat them down with just two moves.

"Weaklings," she commented. "I hope you two won´t be so disappointing," she said to Vegeta and Son Gohan who had just returned.

"You can count on that, **whoever** you are," Vegeta responded.

"Maybe we should transfer this fight to another location," she offered then. "You don´t want our families to suffer any `accident´ do you?"

She was looking around. Bulma, Bra, Krillin, Marron and Seventeen´s wife were all still standing in the already half destroyed building. If they continued to fight here it would probably collapse on top of them. And now without the Dragon Ball they could not longer revive anybody.

"Okay," Vegeta answered, "you have a point here."

"Meet me outside the town," she stated. 18 lifted off the ground and flew westwards towards the city boundary.

"Seventeen, you said she is being controlled?" Gohan asked him.

He nodded.

"He was talking to me telepathical, like before. I don´t know how, but he had somehow transferred himself into her."

"He is right," Krillin told them, "I have heard it as well. It was the same voice as before, the one that was controlling 17."

"This thing has tricked us," Vegeta exclaimed, "it wanted to destroy the machine to keep me from becoming a SSJ4 and if **you** hadn´t let her destroy your clone-body, you could have stopped her easily," he said to the Android.

"As I remember you were all in for the idea," Seventeen retorted.

"Why did she even let us fight somewhere else and give us a chance to bring the others to safety?" Gohan questioned.

"Maybe mom still has some sort of influence, like you did," Marron suggested.

"I hope so," 17 replied.

"Or it is a trap," Vegeta stated a bit more cynical. "Anyway, she had no chance against all of us."

"We have to go after her," Gohan declared.

"We will," Vegeta agreed with him, "Bulma, Bra, get everyone to safety. Then let us go."

"I will come with you," Krillin said. "I want to make sure nothing will happen to her."

"You will hardly be a help, but I won´t stop you," the Saiyan answered.

"Maybe I can bring her back to her senses," he argued.

"He has succeeded before," Seventeen informed them, "and nearly with me too. In fact **that** was the reason my double had taken me over and forced me to kill him."

"Is that so," Vegeta stated. "Then let us not waste any more time."

As soon as they were sure that their families were at a save place, the four Saiyans, 17 and Krillin flew after 18.

xxxxxxx

_Mirai timeline_

"Tell me, what are you showing me all this?" Trunks asked. "Give me a reason."

"I want you to know about the threats that are waiting out there for you. I want you to be prepared."

"Prepared," he repeated, "you of all beings want me prepared? **You** are everything I have ever been fighting against."

"That was true once, but things change," the being responded. "I know what you are thinking Trunks, but the opponent we both are facing right now is a greater threat at this moment than I am to this world. You know this as well as me."

"Do I?" he questioned.

If the half Saiyan knew one thing that that he wasn´t sure what to think anymore.

"I am not so sure of that," Trunks stated. "What did you say this `threat´ is called again?" he asked.

"The Great Gete Star," the voice answered. "It has just entered this sector of space and now it is on the way to Earth. We will need to work together if we want to stop it."

"Yes Trunks," another figure addressed him as it stepped out of the shadows next to them, "we can only stop it if we are working together, partner," Android 13 said to him.

"If you think so `partner´," Trunks replied sarcastically.

He knew he would never trust him as far as he could throw a black hole. At least back then with 17 and 18 you knew where you were standing with them.

He was asking himself why his new `allies´ were showing him the events concerning the two parallel versions of the two Androids. Was it simply a generic warning about the possible dangers out there in the universe, or even the multiverse?

Or was it a way to intimidate him by showing him what they `could´ have become? Or was it for some completely different reason?

Maybe it was just a distraction to keep him from thinking too much about **themselves**.

He remembered the last time he had met this other versions of Android 17 and 18.

xxxxxxx

_`Past´ timeline, 3 months after the Cell Games_

There had just been a battle and the Z-Figthers were now all lying scattered and nearly motionless on the battlefield.

It was only a short time after the fall of the menace known as Cell. A band of interstellar conquerors and mercenaries known as the Galaxy Soldiers under their leader Bojack had come to Earth, to subjugate it.

Here they had been confronted by the group of fighters known as the Z-Fighters, that at this moment also included the time traveller Trunks who had come back to inform them about his success against the Androids.

This was the first time he had come to this past. First to warn them about the coming of Doctor Gero´s Androids, three years earlier, then to fight against them by their side. Things however had turned out to be quite different in that version of the past.

The two Androids he knew were not longer the true enemy. Somehow, through all the alterations in this timeline, **they** had become different. Instead they had to fight the other Android Cell, who had come from another unknown future to them.

And now one last time to tell them about his victory in his own future.

Here however he had right away been confronted with another threat in form of Bojack and his minions. Together they had managed to defeat them, but now practically all of their group were injured, exhausted and could barely stand up anymore themselves.

While Trunks was lying there, struggling with unconsciousness, he saw two figures landing close by. As they were coming closer, he recognized one of them. It was nobody else than Android 18. Of course, he thought, there were not many people who could fly.

His body froze. He knew that this version of the Androids was different than the one from his world, but that didn´t exactly mean that he trusted them with his life in his current state.

"What do you say Eighteen," he heard a well known voice coming from close by, "they are all still alive, just as I told you."

"Of course... I said the same thing, remember?" she responded, "this guys don´t die so easily."

She kneeled down next to him.

"Hey Trunks, that was your name wasn´t it?" she said to him.

"Ei...Eighteen," he brought out.

"Yes that is me, nice that you remember," she replied. "We had just heard what had happened here from the TV. We were sure that you would made it and you did. But as it seems you have taken a lot of damage by yourself. So we will do something for you now. Don´t interprete this wrong, I owe you because you have tried to help me the last time," she stated.

Trunks wanted to answer, to say something more to her, anything. But in his half-conscious state he could not even speak anymore.

xxx

As he woke up again he was lying in a hospital bed. The Andoids were already gone. He was just been told that a young man and a girl had brought them in.

They could have killed them all easily while they were defenseless lying on the battlefield and then take over the planet for themselves. Instead they had in fact personally delivered them to the infirmary.

Till this day he didn´t knew exactly what had changed them so much from one dimension to the other, only that they were different.

xxxxxxx

_Mirai timeline_

It may be a distraction, he thought. Still he couldn´t hold back. He wanted to know.

"Show me more," he said, "I want to see the rest of what happened."

* * *

**Autor´s note:** The name I have given to Seventeen´s wife is based on the element Larimar. In the alphabetical list of gem-stones I had found listed right below Lapis Lazuli.


	3. Chapter 3: End and Beginning

**Chapter 3**

_Present timeline, 23 years after the Cell Games_

They just landed at an area close to the city. She was here, they knew this.

Since his latest transformations 17 had the ability to detect her practically everywhere on the planet.

Eighteen however had also no intention to keep her presence hidden. She had invited them here after all.

The six of them were watching around.

"Eighteen," Gohan called out, "we are here. Come out."

It were only a few seconds until they heard a well known voice. They all had to remind themselves that right now Eighteen was not on their side, even if it was not by choice.

"Yes I see you have arrived," she said. "Welcome."

"18," Krillin addressed her, "I know you can hear me, don´t let it control you."

He didn´t knew if his pleading had even any chance. Eighteen was clearly far deeper under this thing´s influence than she had ever been before.

He had been able to bring her back to her senses once before. But that had been very early, when the Clone-Android had just began to take over. Now was a completely different matter, especially going by all what already had happened.

He recalled how the controlled 18 had blasted the Capsule Corp. building and killed maybe a dozen people. The Eighteen he knew would have never done that, not even in the time `before´ they had gotten together and she had still been hunting for Goku.

At least **then** they had not purposely targeted bystanders. But now things were different. She was not longer herself, just like 17 had been before.

He could only hope that it wouldn´t come to the worst.

But im the end, if it came down to Eighteen or the whole world, what choice did they have?

Krillin remembered how he had made the same choice once before, as he could not bring himself to deactivate 18 and Cell ended up absorbing her. His best friend Goku and hundreds of others died as an result, Trunks, Android 16. The entire world had nearly been destroyed.

He just could not made the same choice again, not even for her.

To that came that they did not have the Dragon Balls anymore. That meant whatever happened, nobody could reverse it later, unless of course they travelled to New Namek for theirs.

But even then, after what had happened with the Shadow Dragons they would think trice before ever using the Dragon Balls again. Not to save just a single person, even if it was her.

They didn´t even knew just **how** this had happened. If Seventeen was right, then Hellfighter had somehow survived the destruction of Super 17´s body and took over 18 instead. But how in the world had he managed to do that?

"Yes, your little `wife´ does indeed hear you human," the Android answered with a cold voice. "But you should not think that this makes any difference." The word human sounded like an insult out of her mouth.

For two of them it was not the first time they had seen this. Seventeen and Krillin had both been in this situation before. This time however the roles of some of them had been reversed. This time 17 was standing at their side and 18 was the `enemy´.

For both of them it was another nightmare come true.

"The question is what will you do now?" `Eighteen´ asked them.

"Is that a question? We will stop you," Vegeta claimed. "You didn´t think that we would hold back just because the Android woman used to be or ally, right?"

Krillin shot him a very quick uneasy look at his statement. But he didn´t say anything.

They all knew `holding back´ was exactly what they would do. Vegeta was bluffing.

They would do everything to get her back without harming her. Not even he would consider actually killing an ally, not anymore.

A few decades back he would have done exactly that in the blink of an eye. Gohan and Krillin both still remembered the fate of his old partner Nappa, who he had single-handely killed for failing him. But these times were over.

xxx

Now they were standing in front of an very dangerous Android, their friend and ally, Krillin´s wife, who had been turned against them.

Eighteen was just standing there, smiling.

In this moment they suddenly heard the sound of an explosion coming from... behind them, from the direction of West City.

"What was that?" Son Goten called out.

"That came from the town," Trunks responded.

They were all starring at Eighteen who was still grinning.

"What shall I say, in opposite to what you may think me and my `brother´ here are not the only leftovers of Doctor Gero´s legacy on this world," she stated.

"What?" Seventeen exclaimed.

"What does she mean?" Krillin turned to him. "Who else is there?"

"I don´t know," he answered. "I have no idea what she is talking about."

"Maybe if you think about it, you will figure it out `brother´," she commented.

"I am **not** your brother," he responded.

"No? maybe not but you will be again soon enough when you are back under control."

"Never."

"Enough," Vegeta called out, "she is just trying to distract you. Don´t you see that?" He addressed the three other Saiyajins. "Trunks, Gohan, Goten, go and deal with whatever has caused this. We will take care of her."

They all were looking at 18.

"What are you still standing around here?" he turned to the others as he realized Gohan, Goten and Trunks were still there, "go."

"Okay Vegeta," Gohan stated.

"Now, why don´t you just surrender?" Eighteen asked them mockingly.

Without wasting another second the three Saiyans blasted off the ground and left the others behind. Moments later they were already nearly a kilometer away.

"Forget it," Vegeta responded to her. "We will get you here and now, even if I have to beat you out of Eighteen´s body."

"You are open to try," she said.

"Seventeen, you are going from the right side. We fight together. Krillin, stay behind. If anybody else comes to interrupt the fight, blast them. As it looks she is not alone," he stated.

"We have to try to reach her somehow," the human fighter said.

"You can do that after we have beaten some sense into her," he replied.

Vegeta transformed into a Super Saiyajin. Both he and 17 attacked at the same time and 18 began to slowly fall back.

xxxxxxx

Meanwhile the others had arrived back in the town, right at the source of the explosion.

Gohan, Trunks and Goten landed in front of the burning remains of a building. They all had already transformed as well.

Just a few feet from them was a dead body lying. It was a man. They saw that a ki blast had been shot straight through his chest and left a gaping scorched hole. In a short distance were two young women, both in a similar state.

It was another senseless waste of life, killing just for the sake of killing. One thing was obvious however. Whoever had done this was clearly dangerous, so much was clear.

They could not feel any ki close by, so probably another Android. That made sense. Was it the `other one´ 18 had just mentioned? they asked themselves.

To their luck this attack happened far away enough from the safe-house where Bulma and the others were. The other people however had not so much luck. They had to stop this and that as fast as possible.

In this moment they heard another blast, very close.

As they came around the next corner they finally saw the figure responsible for the destruction and froze in their tracks.

"But...how?" Goten stuttered.

"We should have known," Gohan whispered.

xxxxxxx

While all that happened, at `another place´, something else was going on.

Those events were happening inside Eighteen´s own mind. While part of her consciousness was completely aware what was going on outside, another one was trapped in her own body.

18 felt as if she was looking through a veil of smoke, as if she was watching the world over a line of monitors or through closed windows.

At the outside she was fighting Vegeta and Seventeen. During the contest she was drawing back, step by step, just like she or rather the thing in her mind had planned from the beginning.

At the same time however another battle was taking place inside herself.

Her body had just stopped using the tactic of falling back and was now holding them at bay with Invinity Bullet.

For her it was like she was looking out of a dark room, that she was sitting inside. Only able to be there and watch while her limbs were moving and her lips were talking.

But she knew she was not alone.

For the first time she had truly gained an appreciation for what 17 had gone through. Being controlled and send against the other fighters.

She deeply regretted every harsh word she had spoken against him back then, in grieve and anger. Now that she was in the same situation.

But she also knew that now she was confronted with the being who was **truly** responsible for Krillin´s death and all she had gone through.

"You," she mentally called out, "can you hear me? Answer me you bastard."

After a few short moments she got her reply.

_"18,"_ she was hearing a voice, _"how nice of you to talk to me,"_ he said smoothly. It was a voice sounding very similar to that of her brother, but yet different, **his** voice.

"How have you taken control of my body? How are you even still alive? Goku and me have killed you and Seventeen together. But I know only **he** got resurrected." At least in mind, she thought, recalling the liveless form of the Android-Copy.

_"I don´t know what you are even so agitated about `sister´. All this here is only the result of your own actions,"_ he told her.

"Nonsense," she replied. "Tell me, how did you manage to do that?"

_"Don´t you already know? You and me share the same mind after all?"_

Suddenly Eighteen had a flashback. It was as if she was seeing the events play out right in front of her.

Once again she was seeing the highway in that city. She saw **herself** for a short few seconds falling under Hellfighter´s control... until she heard Krillin calling out to her, bringing her back to herself and afterwards trying to do the same for her brother.

She saw the mind-controlled 17 killing Krillin and then herself attacking him, uselessly. Seventeen had been `working´ on his full potential back then, she did not. The gap between them had been small enough to surprise attack 17 and land a few `good hits´. But it was too much for her to have any real chance.

_"Yes, that was when the bond between us had been first established,"_ the voice told her. _"But that is not everything, by far not. You want to know?... Remember."_

Eighteen remembered. She saw and heard.

A scene appeared, Doctor Gero and the other one, Doctor Myuu, standing in front of a desolated landscape, Hell. Next to them stood another large figure with blueish skin. General Rilldo, she knew, a Machine Mutant with the ability to turn all sorts of matter into metal and manipulate it on molecular level.

In front of them was an unspezified lumb of metal, that was reforming itself under Rilldo´s power until it had taken a special shape, a shape identical with Android 17.

They were working on it with tools that the Wizard Babidi had conjured for them. 18 knew all this. But the knowledge didn´t belong to her, it was **his**.

_"Very good,"_ Gero said in the memory, _"your General Rilldo is really as capable as you have promised."_

_"Of course he is. Have you doubted me?"_

_"No my friend I did not," Gero replied._

_"And it is very good that you still possess the designs of your `Project Number 17´," Myuu stated. _

_"Of course I did," he responded, mirroring the words of his partner from a moment before. "This is the first step to our common goal."_

Yes, Eighteen remembered how this `common goal´ had ended for him. This had to be the first time she nearly felt sorry for Gero, nearly.

_"The day of my `birth´,"_ Hellfighter stated. _"But that is not important right now. Only the great goal is"_

"There is no `great goal´," 18 responded. "Gero and Myuu are dead again, by your and 17´s own hand."

_"You are right, my masters are gone and I am not longer able to bring them back," he admitted. "All what left is for me to fullfil their dreams and __**revenge**__. You did not think I would forget what 17 and you did to me?_

_I had Son Goku right in front of me, helpless. We had defeated him, me and 17, until __**you**__ had interferred. You have turned 17 against me...and..."_

"What **we** did to you? You have killed my husband," 18 shouted angrily.

"A worthless human," he commented. "What is his life against our great goal? What are all their lives? I will kill him again very soon. Your daughter, I will break her bones and crush the life out of her. Then I will continue with all the other humans on this planet, just like the great Doctor Gero has wanted it. And I will use your body to do it."

"You are sick," she yelled at him.

_"That is your fault. You and 17, you have infected me with your emotions. Before that I had none. __**You**__ have ruined everything, but there is still a chance..."_

Eighteen saw other scenes.

She watched a cave, a large underground complex, a...computer. No, more than one. People were working on it... then they were all gone. The place was abandoned.

She saw Gero´s lab and the basement below it. Here, another computer, identical to the first one. Then she watched two men appear, her husband, many years younger and the other she recognized, Trunks the one from the future and they began to blow the entire complex up.

At last she saw the other cave, empty, but now with a stasis capsule, with a body inside, looking exactly like her own. But she knew she had never been there.

_"Do you understand now?"_ he asked her. _"Doctor Gero´s maybe greatest secret, the `Networked-Mega-System´, first created back in the days of the Red Ribbon Army and the heart of their secret empire._

_There are three consoles at different places around the globe - every of them one of the most highly developed computers on this world - connected. Together they were the most complex computer intelligence that had ever been created._

_It was this system that was responsible for the creation of Cell, that took care of the projects that Doctor Gero had not enough time to deal with personally. But then one day your `husband´ and this Saiyan appeared and destroyed one of the three consoles. They left the system crippled, barely a shadow of what it had once been, but still functional._

_And so it continued to work in secret for years without anyone noticing, not even you and 17. It was using Doctor Gero´s old spy drones to follow the events._

_Yes, it was the computer who had, as Super 17 had been destroyed, downloaded my consciousness into another body."_

"Not mine," 18 realized.

_"No, but very close. It had also watched Doctor Gero´s return from the dead and his newest, greatest, project, Super 17 and it took advantage of the data."_

xxxxxxx

Vegeta was one of the most powerful beings this universe had ever seen. Admittedly, he had not always been this strong. In opposite to others, like Freezer, he had not been born with all his power.

While his birth strength had been immense for a Saiyan of that time, it was nothing to what he was now. But most of it he had reached by constantly improving, over years and decades.

Mostly through hard training days by day, but also through transformations, zenkais and even mystical and technological assistance. All that to bring out every single bit of his potential that he could.

First he had become a Super Saiyajin, then a SSJ2, then a SSJ God. He had learned to completely integrate the godly ki into his own and just continued to train. Then he even became a SSJ4 for a short time.

Today he could show the results of all this efforts. Even in his normal state without transforming he could easily destroy opponents like for example Majin Buu. As a SSJ he was even stronger than that. SSJ2 had become practically useless, but he had still access to all it´s power.

Right **now** he was fighting with everything he had and he was still not winning. 17 and 18, he grudgingly admitted, were far more than just simple Androids or even Cyborgs. He had seen the blueprints and listened to Bulma´s explanations as well.

They were beings genetically warped beyond imagination to bring out every bit of strength possible. And that combined with a practically infinite supply of artificial ki. You could hardly imagine a worse opponent.

He and 17 had just withstood the barrage of ki blasts 18 had been raining on them.

Vegeta had now changed into his SSJ2 state. It was only a very small power up in comparison to the normal SSJ anymore, but he needed every bit of strength he could get.

Otherwise he would maybe have to rely on 17´s help to bring her down and that was something he really didn´t want. He still was the Prince of the Saiyans after all.

Now he was overwhelming Eighteen once again. He landed a hard punch and send her flying backwards. But he also knew he could not hold up this level of strength forever.

He knew there was one last thing he could do to end this here quickly. But he wasn´t sure if he would succeed.

xxxxxxx

_West City_

Gohan, Goten and Trunks were standing before the being who had attacked the city. They could not quite believe it.

"How can that be?" Trunks said.

"Hello guys, I see you have come," the second 18 greeted them. This one was wearing the same clothes and looking nearly identical to the original as she had been activated. But none of them could have known this.

"Doctor Gero is back in Hell," Gohan stated. "There is no way he could have created you as well." Not with Piccolo watching over him as he had been told, he thought.

"True, but there is someone else who is doing the same work," she replied.

"Who?" he asked her.

"You don´t need to know," she answered. "All you need to is...die." With this words she fired a massive quick blast at them which Gohan barely managed to block.

"Stand back," he said to Goten and Trunks.

"Yes, stand back boys, this is way out of your league," the Clone-Cyborg mocked them.

xxxxxxx

Meanwhile Vegeta was pushing back the original 18 even further. He had kicked her in the side and nearly send her into the side of a mountain, similar as she had done it with him all these years ago.

But instead she just caught herself in mid-air.

"Impressive, you actually seem to be a bit stronger than me right now. But how long do you think you can hold up this?" she taunted him.

Vegeta frowned. Not for much longer, he knew, but did not let it show.

In this moment suddenly 17 appeared right behind 18 and tried to grab her.

She barely managed to avoid it.

"Now now brother, attacking someone from behind is not exactly fair," she addressed him.

"Neither is controlling someone´s mind," he responded.

"I told you to stay out of this," Vegeta said to him.

"Hey usually I am all in for a fair fight," 17 answered, "but this is my sister here and she is only fighting you in the first place because she was brainwashed. You know that."

"Oh yes right, you would not hurt your sister wouldn´t you?" 18 spoke now to 17.

Suddenly however her expression changed.

"No," she shouted, "he is in my head...let me, leave me alone...17 help me. Don´t let him get me again, please. I am sorry. I am sorry for all the things I said to you, but please protect me from him," she pleaded.

For a moment 17 hesitated, not sure what to do and let his arms sink down.

Only to be punched in the face. `Eighteen´ was laughing viciously.

"I had not thought that you would actually fall for that one `brother´. This `emotions´ are really trouble, right?"

xxx

Deep inside her mind the real 18 faced a similar situation with the being that now existed inside her mind and was controlling her actions.

_"The computer wanted my knowledge, my experience, 17´s experience that I had taken over from him,"_ Hellfighter explained. _"So it had isolated my consciousness and transferred it into the unfinished body of the new Android it was creating, based on the surveillance-data from Super 17 and **your** design. I suppressed and partly replaced `Neo 18´s´ still developing personallity and from there I then took control of you."_

"I see," she replied. "All that because this blasted super-computer is still following the vision of this madman."

_"Be quiet," he said to her. "You don´t know what you are talking about...no you don´t. Right now the computer should be constructing a new body for me as well. Soon we will be standing side by side...over the ruins of this world."_

"No we won´t," 18 gave back, "they will destroy you."

_"Even if that means destroying you as well?"_ he asked. _"They can´t anyway,"_ he stated. _"Now that I have used you to destroy my old body and the machine that allowed Vegeta to turn into a SSJ4, there is nothing in this world anymore with the power to stand in our way, now that Son Goku is gone."_

"They will find a way."

_"We will see. You know, while I admit, it had not absolute complete data of Super 17, the computer was actually able to make one or two improvements. One of them was a far better control over the `secundary body´. Something like with 17 will not be repeated."_

Eighteen, her mental representation, felt from one moment to the other as if she was paralized, as if chains of cold iron were locked around her.

_"You 18,"_ she heard him saying, _"belong to me."_

xxxxxxx

Gohan was clashing with the Clone-Android as SSJ2. The ground was crumbling and breaking beneath their feed as they tried to overpower the other.

Trunks and Goten exchanged a look.

"Damn it and we are just standing around," Goku´s second son cursed as he saw his brother fighting.

"I know what you mean. But I fear we are in the best case distractions here," Trunks replied. A second later however a thought came to him. "Unless, we could try the fusion again," he suggested.

"We haven´t tried that in years and we were still children back then," Goten reminded him.

"It can not hurt to try right?"

"Actually it can if we end up in a messed up form," Goten responded.

"Okay, but we could still try if you want to do something."

Slowly but for sure Gohan was getting weaker and the Android so far seemed completely unfazed by anything he had done. In fact Eighteen´s copy looked as if she had not even really been trying. She had just waited for him to run out of energy. I didn´t look good.

But suddenly his problem was solved, in an completely unexpected way. Another energy was approaching quickly. It was Uub.

Damn it, Neo 18 realized. This fighter called Uub was since he had merged with the Demon Buu according to the data far stronger than Gohan or any of the others here, even far stronger than her in her current state.

And he was coming closer quickly. But the data also suggested her a solution, a technique the Z-fighters had used very often in the past.

"It was a good fight Gohan," she said, "but I guess we should end it right here...and now look out," she told them.

"Hey that..." Trunks called out, realizing what she was doing. But it was already too late.

"Solar Flare," she shouted and created the to them well known bright light.

Still she took them by surprise and blinded the other fighters.

Without a moment of hesitation Neo 18 blasted off the ground and was gone.

"Damn, why do we fall for this every time?" Gohan asked nobody in particular.

"I ask myself the same thing," Trunks commented.

Seconds later Uup landed next to them.

"Hey, what is going on?" he asked them as the three could finally see again. "I felt your energy from across the planet and now I find you here. Why are you fighting Miss 18? What is going on?"

"It is good that you are here Uup," Gohan told him. "We will explain everything to you on the way, we have to go after her."

"Wait a moment," Trunks interrupted him. "There is something we want to do first." He and Goten started the fusion-dance.

xxxxxxx

Vegeta had landed another strike on 18 and this time the blow threw her to the ground.

"Why don´t you give up?" he asked her. "Even if I should run out of energy, there is still 17 here to take care of you. You will loose either way."

"So you admit that you might actually not be enough by yourself. Not exactly words fitting of the `Great Prince Vegeta´," she commented.

"What does it matter?" he asked. "What counts is that you are finished."

"Here you are wrong," she stated with a cold grin.

In this moment someone shot both Vegeta and Seventeen in the back. They had been concentrating on the opponent in front of them and there hadn´t been any ki to detect. They had no chance to see it coming. Another Android, they had trusted the others to deal with it, but obviously they had not been enough.

Seconds later they saw who it had been and barely believed their own eyes, another copy.

"Goddamnit," Vegeta yelled, "just how many of you had this nutjob Gero created," he called into Seventeen´s direction.

"I have no idea. I don´t know where this one came from."

"You will understand soon enough brother," both Eighteens said nearly simultanously while their bodies seemed to move closer and closer together. It was beginning.

Both 17 and Vegeta had just recovered from the last ki attack, but it was too late to do anything to stop it anyway. It was the same display as the last time.

The two bodies were literally merging together until there was only one figure standing in front of them.

Krillin gulped as he saw **this** version of his wife. He didn´t knew if he should be horrified or attracted or both.

She was now nearly one head taller as the regular Eighteen, however not as tall as Super 17 had been and much sleeker than his statue had been, had longer hair and a more defined `built´ as you could say or more simply spoken, a more impressive figure.

She was, if Krillin had to put it into one word, stunning.

They were all dead, he realized somewhere in the back of his mind. If she was as dangerous as he heard it of Super 17, then there was nobody left on this world who even stood a chance.

"Now who wants to be first?" the merged Android said to them.

But before she could say anything else, she was hit by a large ki blast that someone had fired from the sky.

"How about me?" the newly arrived figure, who was in SSJ3 mode, asked just as he landed next to them.

Seventeen had never seen him before, but by his appearance it was clear that he was obviously the fusion of Trunks and Son Goten. Vegeta and Krillin also recognized him instantly.

The energy radiating from the newcomer was immense, not as high as one of the two SSJ4, but impressive.

A few seconds later Gohan and Uub landed a short distance behind him.

"Gotenks," Krillin called out in surprise.

"Hey Krillin, long time not seen," he greeted him. "We will talk a bit later after I have stopped your wife and brought her back to her senses." With that he fired an entire volley of blasts at the newly created Super 18.

"You idiot, stop it," 17 shouted at him. "Did you not know that she can absorb energy? Or had Goku not bothered to mention that?"

"What?" Gotenks called now out dumbfounded and instantly stopped shooting. "No, he didn´t say a single word."

"Well, father couldn´t have known that another Android like that would appear," Gohan reminded them, "and we had other problems at that time with the Shadow Dragons running amok."

Eighteen was now surrounded by an aura of glowing energy that slowly vanished as she absorned it.

"Good job you two," Vegeta commented, "you made her even stronger than before. You have really taken a great moment to use the fusion again."

"Sorry Vegeta," Gotenks replied.

"Now, why don´t we start start with you?" Super 18 stated. "As I remember you had a duel before with my old self. You know Vegeta there had always been something I wanted to tell you. You are truly **pitiful**, aren´t you?

All this years you have been pretending to rival Son Goku, while the whole time you were using the high-gravity trainer, a trainings method **he** had invented.

You needed the Room of Spirit and Time to surpass **me **and you only had the chance to train there in the first place because Son Goku told you about it. You trained there twice as long as he did and were still weaker.

But you instantly grew arrogant enough to sacrifice **my** life against Cell because you thought you could take him in his so called perfect state and you got not only Son Goku but also your own son killed.

You had the Wizard Babidi give you more power just to **match** Goku and you still ended up weaker than him.

And then finally you needed a machine to finally become his equal. One that I have destroyed with a single shot. Prince of the Saiyans? You are a joke. You are **nothing** without Son Goku and Bulma who had been **helping** you along at every step."

"You know," Vegeta replied, not showing any reaction at the outside, "this words would actually **mean** something if they were coming from the real 18 and not from the creature who is controlling her like a puppet."

"You wound me Vegeta."

"Whatever," he said, "in one point you are right, Son Goku and Bulma had always been helping me a lot and I never have appreciated it.

Maybe you are right. I have been a pitiful little man in the past. But this time is over. I am standing on my own now."

As he said this, he was transforming before their eyes into a SSJ4.

"Vegeta," Uub exclaimed.

"You have done it," Gohan congratulated.

"I see I have underestimated you. You have learned to make this transformation without the help of the machine," 18 observed. "But you should not think that this will change anything. You are still unable to use ki attacks against me and you will still run out of energy sooner or later. Not to mention that your friends there will not stay fused for much longer."

Vegeta hated to admit it but she had a point here. There were several disadvantages for him, especially if he wanted to stop her without killing her. He still faced the same problem like a short time ago, he would run out of energy and she not. To that came the energy Gotenks had unknowingly given to her. Even as a SSJ4 he was not sure if he could win.

"We will just have to overpower you together before that happens," he said to her confidently.

"Oh really?"

Vegeta, Uub and Gotenks attacked at the same time. But they were trying not to cause any real damage to her, 18 no longer had such reservations.

Uub was the strongest under the Z-fighters with the exceptions of the SSJ4. But the gap between them was wide and here, as shown before with Super 17, he was completely outmatched.

He was holding her on one of her arms while Gotenks and Vegeta were trying to throw her down. But she shook him off quite easily and then shot a ball of energy at Gotenks who was blown off her.

She was then left struggling hand to hand with Vegeta.

Seventeen was watching his `sister´. By the data he was receiving she was, in her original state, actually a bit weaker than Super 17 had been. Whoever had constructed 18´s copy had probably copied the original design but it seems he was unable to completely replicate Doctor Myuu´s alien technology.

Still the energy she had absorbed from Gotenks should be more than enough to make up for that. He wished more than ever that he had not let her fool him into letting her destroy his own double.

But he had another idea, something he would maybe be able to do.

In this moment the time-limit of the fusion had ended. Gotenks was again separating into Trunks and Goten. The two half-saiyans were now standing next to each other on the battlefield.

Enough was enough, Vegeta decided in this moment. Ally or not Eighteen needed to be stopped before even more people died, even if it meant killing her.

This was however also the moment in which Seventeen decided to get active. Like once before he was using the systems that he had quite ironically adopted from Hellfighter.

He send out a mental call and connected himself with Eighteen´s mind, trying to reach his sister inside of the being before him.

"Vegeta, Uub," he said to the others, "I have an idea how we can stop her."

_"18,"_ he called out in his mind, _"do you hear me? Answer me?"_

_"Seventeen,"_ he finally heard her answer. But he could also detect another presence in her, the same he remembered from his time as Super 17, Hellfighter.

_"Eighteen, fight back, free yourself. I did the same thing, with your help."_

_"I can not, they have improved the control, because of the last time."_

_"I will assist you," _he answered.

And while he thought that he connected his implanted systems and also his own mind nearly completely with Eighteen´s deeper and deeper and at the same time, Super 18 froze in her movement. She had stopped fighting.

17´s eyes started to glow red and 18´s did the same.

He mentally projected the picture of a hand reaching out to her and her reaching back.

"Krillin," he said to him, "talk to her, try to reach her."

He of course instantly followed 17´s words. He had been waiting for a chance to do exactly that the whole time anyway.

"Eighteen, please come back to us. Marron wants to see you. We miss you. We know you are not responsible for what had happened."

"Be...be quiet...human," Super 18 stammered. It was clear that she was reacting to his words. They were nearly sure they could see tears flowing out of her eyes.

"Good Krillin, you are reaching her," 17 stated.

Super 18 was now standing in front of them completely motionless, literally frozen in place. While her mind was being forced into two directions, her body was now not longer showing any reaction, completely standing still.

"Vegeta," 17 addressed him, "Prepare your best shot and when I say it...blast her with all you have."

"What?" Krillin called out.

"You knew that it would come to this," he replied. "Either we get Eighteen back or nothing.

_"No you won´t,"_ 17 heard another voice in his mind. It was Hellfighter.

"You know she would rather die than stay like this," he said to both of them at the same time.

Next to them Vegeta prepared his Final Flash attack. After a few more seconds he was ready to fire.

And he was aiming at the Android who still seemed to be unable to move.

Seventeen knew that Eighteen´s own consciousness was holding it in place, with a bit help of himself.

_"You are __**not**__ leaving,"_ **both** of them said mentally to Hellfighter´s presence.

"Do it," Seventeen said to Vegeta.

_"No,"_ both both of the twins heard a voice calling out inside her heads. In this moment the fused Android separated once again back into two before their eyes.

Two Android Eighteen were being thrown to two different sides.

"**Now**... this one," 17 called to Vegeta and pointed to the 18 at the right.

_"No,"_ they heard the voice shouting once again as the replicated Android, who was also Hellfighter´s temporally host-body was hit by the Final Flash of the SSJ4 and vaporized.

The other 18 was now lying on the ground before them and was slowly standing up. They saw that she had indeed been crying.

"Eighteen," Krillin asked her carefully, "are you back?"

"Yes," she answered I am back. Thank you," she said first to 17, then to the others, "for everything."

xxxxxxx

_Two weeks later_

By now Bulma had, just as she had promised, found her way to integrate all the parts and cellular components of their doppelgangers into their own bodies, to make it impossible for Gero or Myuu to control them in this ways again.

She had actually constructed new components for 18, since her duplicate body had been completely destroyed. It had now been that hard with what they had found.

xxx

"Physically it will nearly be just like as when you had been fusionated. You will have the additional power and you will be able to absorb energy," Bulma had explained to them. "So essentially you will be Super 17 and 18 when the integrated systems are activated, only that you will be yourself now and not be controlled by someone else and free of Gero´s programming of course. And your design will be complete now, so that it can not longer be manipulated from the outside," she pointed out.

"I hope so, I am really not in the mood to have to stop this two again," Vegeta commented.

"But in everything else we will be exactly like before, even with the new components?" 18 wanted to know.

"Well, maybe you will look a few years older," Bulma stated.

"Okay, **that** is actually a good idea," Mari pointed out. "What," she asked, "do you have any idea how many people have been looking at me strangely when they see that my husband is still looking like a teenager after all these years?

I am lucky that we are living in the wildpark-area, but whenever we are visiting a town it is just awkward. Of course 17 always acts as if he doesn´t care," she told them all. "Krillin can maybe get away with this. What do I say? They probably think that **he** must just be some kind of great catch when they see him with someone like 18, but me..."

She was by now giving a glare to the former monk who was married to her husband´s sister.

"Hey, you can hardly blame me for that," Krillin defended himself.

Behind them some of the others had started to chuckly, even Vegeta a bit.

xxx

It was over, there was only one last thing to do.

17 and 18, both in their new super-forms, were now standing in two different mountain areas at different parts of the planet. Either of them was standing in front of an underground complex that contained a still working computer.

It were the two remaining components of Doctor Gero´s great AI system. With the information 18 had found out from Hellfighter, it had been easy to locate. They had also found the remains of an half-finished Android body inside of one of the installations, probably the `new body´ for Hellfighter he had been talking about.

_"Are you ready 17?"_ Eighteen send him a mental message.

_"Whenever you say 18,"_ he answered.

Both of them threw at the same time a charged ball of ki energy at the two super computer and both parts of the Networked-Mega-System exploded nearly simultanously.

_"Now 18, it is finally over,"_ 17 said to her.

They both ascended into the air to fly back to their meeting place and from their to kame-house, where both their families where at the moment.

A few minutes later however, they **all** received another surprising telepathic message, all of the Z-fighters and their friends. This one however not from anyone on the planet, but from deep space.

_"Hey guys,"_ the voice spoke to them, _"it is me, Son Goku. I only wanted to tell you that I have arrived at my destination. I am sorry that I had to leave you all like that, but you see, I am not exactly alive anymore. I am something else now._

_I promise that we will all see each other again, but it is possible that it will be only in the Afterlife."_

Son Goku´s final message would continue for another few minutes and he would also get a few replies from the others. They all knew it would be the last they hear from him for a long time.

xxxxxxx

_Mirai timeline_

An entire dimension away, the demi-saiyajin called Trunks had been watching detailed recording that showed him the most of what had happened during these events and various others.

Most of them were from the same timeline, the past he had travelled to before. But some were also from other realities, different worlds where things had happened a bit differently as he knew it.

The conclusion of some of the things he had seen were shocking.

Why was he even here? a part of him asked himself, cooperation with a being he had not the slightest bit of trust for. How had it come to this?

Trunks remembered:

xxxxxxx

_Three days earlier_

He was standing at a valley close to West City and watching over the landscape.

It was not all too often that he had some time for himself like that. He had just ended his training-schedule for today a few minutes ago. The earlier part of the day he had spend helping the people in the town with the rebuilding.

He was Trunks Briefs, the son of Vegeta and the last living Saiyajin in his world.

This was the way he was spending most of his days in this time.

It was by now five years ago that he had defeated the Androids, two years that he had destroyed his dimension´s version of Cell.

Since then the life on the Earth of his timeline had been peaceful. He did not knew yet that it would not be for much longer.

* * *

**Autors note:** This was by far the longest chapter I have ever written, over 7000 words and it will probably be the longest of this story. But I wanted to bring the first arc to an end here.

The next one will play in the Mirai timeline and Trunks will take over as Main Character.


	4. Chapter 4: Future s Nightmare

**Chapter 4**

_Mirai timeline, 23 years after the rise of the Androids_

The planet named Earth, while in many other dimensions it was a peaceful and beautiful world, this one had been turned over decades into nothing but a giant battlefield, a graveyard.

Responsible for all this had been just three individuals. This three however were extremely powerful and dangerous beings that could easily obliterate multiple planets.

They were this timeline´s versions of Android Seventeen, Eighteen and finally Cell.

While none of them was even nearly as powerful as their versions from the `other´ dimension, it was still more than enough to cause nearly endless destruction.

xxx

It was now nearly six years ago that Trunks had first travelled back into the past. There he had met Son Goku and the other Z-fighters, including his father Vegeta. And he had been shown a way to gain the strength he needed to destroy his enemies.

This method was the special training in the so called Room of Spirit and Time, a `chamber´, if could could really call it that, in Kami´s old palace that Son Goku had brought him to.

The word chamber however was a bit misleading here. It was essentially a door that led into another dimensions of space-time. While a day passed at the outside world, it was an entire year in the room, a year under extreme conditions.

Trunks thought back to the endless white empty room, the constantly changing gravity and the thin air, day by day for all these months. But it made him stronger. It gave them all the power they had needed.

Together they had faced the Cell who had appeared in the past timeline and in the end they won, thanks to Son Gohan and Son Goku.

Even if it had cost him temporally his life. Cell had actually killed him during the course of the final battle, just before Gohan had defeated him. It was only thanks to the Dragon Balls that he was back alive.

Then afterwards Trunks had returned to his own time with enough power to free it. That was now five and a half years ago.

Now finally peace had returned to this world.

Trunks was still sitting on a meadow and watching the valley close by it and also his home city in greater distance behind it.

He was trying to enjoy a little bit for himself of even this peace that he had created.

It was something that he didn´t got to do very often. Even now, more than 5 years after the Fall of the Androids, the planet was still in a disastrous state.

Repairs and recovery was far from finished and their own timeline´s version of Cell, who had appeared two years ago and caused even more harm before Trunks had stopped him, had made things even worse.

As horrendous as it sounded, 17 and 18 had destroyed over two thirds of the human race.

Of course they had not really killed so many with their own hands. Many millions had perished during mass exoduces **after** entire cities had been wiped out by them, famines and simply the general global-chaos that their onslaught of destruction had caused.

Some others had actually been killed fighting each other over food reserves and resources.

But it wasn´t as if 17 and 18 didn´t actually knew the consequences of their actions. Quite the opposite, they found it amusing.

Cell had killed at least thousands, most likely ten-thousands, more in the short period he had been active.

For the entire planet it had been a nightmare of nearly twenty years, from the day on 17 and 18 had been activated and killed their creator.

But it was a nightmare that was now finally over.

Complete recovery however was something that, if at all, would take decades.

Whenever Trunks was not busy helping people, working in the rebuilding, usually doing stuff that hundred construction-workers couldn´t achieve, he was regulary following his trainings schedule. He had improved even more since his return from the past.

His mastered SSJ form was now about equal to what Goku´s had been at the Cell Games, when he had died.

Trunks remembered how Gohan´s father had sacrificed himself to stop Cell´s self-destruction attack, that would have destroyed the entire planet.

Everything they had done and gone through had nearly been in vain, if it hadn´t been for him. In his mind Trunks had thanked every single one of the Z-fighters more than once for the things they had done. But none more than his old master Gohan, both versions of him and Son Goku.

Then there were sometimes moments when Trunks was showing himself in public, speaking on special events or just making appearances, for one simply reason, to give the people hope, something that they still desperately needed. All that in his role as the `Victor over the Androids´ and savior of Earth.

Sometimes he nearly wished he had someone else to take the credit for him, like this screwed up `Martial arts Champion´ named Mister Satan had done it with Gohan´s victory over Cell in the past.

He thought back the this day six months ago when he was asked to hold a speech to the anniversary festival of the defeat of the Androids in the recently rebuild town hall of West City.

17 and 18 had been monsters, vicious killers, at least the ones of this timeline had been.

But that people now took their destruction as a reason to organize what was basically a giant party, that felt somehow seriously wrong to him. Still he understood that the long tormented citizens needed such events, that reminded them that things had gotten better and still were, that the hell was behind them.

But if he was honest, he hated moments like that.

Quiet moments like **this one** here now on the other hand were all too rare. And like so often it was already over.

Trunks realized right now that he was getting a phone-call from his mother.

"Yes," he answered it a second later, "Mom."

"Trunks where are you? I have been trying to find you for some time now"

"I am out at the town limit," he responded. "I just wanted to have some time for me alone."

"I understand, you have been under a lot of stress lately," she told him, "especially since the festival." They both knew exactly what she was talking about. Ever since this day he had been always busy with one thing or the other.

"Can you come now?" she asked him. "I wanted to show you something."

"Yes, I am coming," he said after a few more moments.

Trunks lifted off the ground and flew back to the city.

Less than ten minutes later he was back home. As he had landed in front of the Capsule Corp. building and stepped towards the door, he was greeted by another voice.

"Welcome back Trunks. It is good to see you," it said to him.

The voice belonged to another person he had originally met in the past. In opposite to the Z-fighters however, he had originally met him as an enemy.

This was not because this being was particular malicious or evil, quite the opposite.

The voice belonged to nobody else than Number 16.

xxx

The tall Android had in the past started out as an opponent and had then turned into an ally. Even the 17 and 18 of that time had to some degree, Trunks admitted. For a short time they fought side by side after all.

This two had certainly proven that they were no longer enemies at their last `meeting´ after the fight with this wannabe conqueror Bojack. He still crinched at the thought how easily they could have killed them all if they had even remotely been like the Androids of **his** time.

In the end they had all been on the same side and Sixteen became one of the fighters who had died defending the world against Cell. Just like Trunks himself did.

If he was honest, he did not even knew for sure what had become of the past version of 16 in the end. Had he been brought back by the Dragon Balls like so many others? Did he still live somewhere in the past?

Or had his status as a completely artificial being kept him from being revived? Trunks wasn´t sure. None of the other Z-fighters he had the chance to ask in the past knew the answer either. Maybe the 17 and 18 from the past knew, but they were already gone when he awoke in the hospital. He never came to ask them.

But Trunks had an idea. If he didn´t knew about the other one, maybe he could at least save the 16 from his own world. Of course he had now way to know for sure if this Sixteen would be peaceful like the one from the past or if he would be...like the other ones. He just had to risk it...

and he had not been disappointed, at least not in this aspect.

It was now two years ago that he had recovered the version of 16 from **this **timeline, a short time after he had killed the Cell of his world. Trunks had decided **not** to do it before his confrontation with him.

He knew that the Bio-Android would appear to attack him in an attempt to steal his time-machine and travel into the past to find other versions of 17 and 18, who he had already destroyed at this point.

This was after all exactly what the first Cell he had met had done, who had come from yet another future where he had killed another Trunks and taken his machine.

Trunks didn´t want to disrupt this chain of events.

He knew Cell had been created in the basement right under Doctor Gero´s lab. If he had appeared there earlier to look for 16, it might have warned him off and somehow caused him to change his actions.

Then he might have to locate him by cheer chance and who could tell how many people could die by his hands until then. Or worse he could have escaped and continued killing for years. He might have even have simply self-destructed at one point and taken the entire planet with him like his other self had tried.

At least so Trunks knew exactly where and when Cell would appear.

He couldn´t even be sure that 16 still existed in this timeline or if Doctor Gero had instead already completely dismantled him. But at least he had to look.

xxx

"Hello 16," he returned the greeting. "Do you know why my mother wanted to talk to me?" he asked.

"Well, part of it might actually be about me," the `Android´ replied.

His voice was being transmitted over the intercom system of the Capsule Corp. building.

"So she has done it?" Trunks asked.

"At least she had made some progress," he stated.

As he had finally actually recovered this version of 16, he saw that what he had found was quite different from what he had expected. Not in the way that he was evil, it was something else.

The Android had already been half dismantled and even the parts left were in various stages of disrepair because 17 and 17 had blown up the lab after their rebellion against Gero all these years ago.

While his body had been pretty much nonfunctional at this point, his CPU and his mind however were still intact as it turned out.

His mother, after hearing the story about this Android from the past, came up with an idea. She had connected 16´s `brain´ with the internal systems of the building. Of course **after** checking his programming to make sure that there was nothing dangerous in it.

At first they had just just connected him to a single computer that was isolated from the rest. So that he had a way to communicate and interact with them, but not enough to actually cause any damage if he wanted to.

A few weeks later, after they knew him better and saw that he was indeed very similar to his past self, they linked him with the entire system. Of course even then Trunks could have easily stopped him.

But 16 had entirely repaid their trust in him. He had in his new state actually been a great help in the logistics for the rebuilding and some of the aid for the regions that were still suffering the greatest from the Android´s reign that Capsule Corp organized.

Parallel to that Bulma was also spending some time with repairing and partly recreating his body that Trunks had found. But Doctor Gero´s work was hard to understand and resources were short. So it took years even for Bulma to do this.

To their luck Trunks had found some of the blueprints in the basement of Gero´s lab, just like they did in the past.

"But there is also something else," 16 told him. "I guess this is the main reason your mother wanted to talk to you. We have detected a object that has recently entered our star system."

"Could you repeat that?" Trunks asked.

"A foreign object that has entered our star system," the Android stated.

"You are not talking about a meteor or something like that?"

"No, certainly not," he replied.

"Mom," Trunks greeted her as he entered Bulma´s lab.

"Ah, you are there," she said. "It is good that you are here."

"16 was saying something about an object that you have detected."

"Yes," she responded, "The scanners of our new computer system had located it just a few hours ago. It is now at the edge of our system and is coming closer and it is big."

"With big you mean how much exactly?"

Her so far outwardly calm expression changed for a moment to one of worry.

"I am talking about a massive scale here. We aren´t quite sure ourselves, but several hundred miles in wide and length at least."

Even Trunks frowned now at her statement.

"But that is not the most unsettling fact about it," Bulma stated. "It is moving on a straight course and I mean with that it is somehow resisting the gravitation of all the other objects out there, like the planets and it is heading directly for Earth."

"A space-ship," Trunks concluded.

"Or something similar," she replied. "Whatever, if it turns out to be hostile, it might cause problems."

"I don´t think you will have reason to get worried. Even if these strangers were attacking, out there should be nobody who has a chance against me."

"Maybe you should not be so overconfident," Bulma responded, "that has always been a weakness of you Saiyajins."

"Mother, Freezer was said to be the strongest being in the universe until the Super Saiyajins appeared. The Androids had been far stronger than him, but they were especially designed fighting machines and I have surpassed them by now," he argued. "And there are Bojack and his group, but they are locked up by the Kais."

"You said it yourself, Freezer **thought** he was the strongest, but then the Super Saiyajins appeared and then the Androids and Cell and Bojack. We know by now that even his brother Cooler had been stronger than Freezer, he just hid it from him.

Can you really say for sure that there is nobody else out there who at least rivals you? And even if and I say if you are the strongest, can you take on possibly thousands of opponents alone, all by yourself, without getting tired?"

Trunks frowned once again, deeper than before, he knew she had a few points here.

"Maybe you should finish the work on Sixteen´s now body," he suggested, "and that as quickly as possible."

"I am already on it," she replied and went back to work.

xxxxxxx

_Trunks remembered, like so often, the past._

_In this case however, not the past he had visited but his own. _

_xxx_

_9 years earlier_

Day by day, it was all the same. It was an age ruled by fire and blood.

The two Androids were spreading their reign of terror all over the globe, like they had done now for nearly one and a half decade.

Like always one man was trying to stop the worst from happening, Son Gohan, the Son of Goku and Chichi, one of the last two half-saiyans in the universe and a Super Saiyajin.

For many years now he had been fighting the Androids.

He was also the last of the group known as the Z-fighters, a lonely warrior. This however had changed roughly a year ago. He was no longer alone.

It was at that time that Trunks had begun to help him. Now there were two protectors instead of one.

Trunks however was still very young and inexperienced and had not yet reached the level of SSJ. More than once Gohan had wished he could leave him out of all this, at least for some time longer.

But, if he was honest with himself, he could not, not anymore. Things had come too far.

They could no longer effort to leave one, leave **any**, potential fighter out. And Trunks was the son of Vegeta.

Gohan knew he had the potential to transform, just like he himself and maybe even more than that. To that came that he had not been constantly wounded and crippled during the last years, he thought with some bitterness as he looked at his missing arm.

It had taken him months to recover from his injuries and to adept his fighting style after loosing a limb. He had been completely off balance for weeks. If he was honest, he was still wasn´t back to old form. He was not sure if he would ever be.

One day the fate of this world and the entire human race might depend on Trunks and that day might be sooner than any of them expected or wanted to.

Still he wished things were different.

There were however also other things that were not longer exactly the same. The Androids had changed the way they operated, in quite a surprising way.

They as well were not really working alone anymore.

xxx

Right now Gohan and Trunks were landing side by side at the edge of the latest scene of random mayhem.

It was the same every time. They were listening to the radio news or some of the few remaining TV broadcasts and whenever they heard about a new attack, they came as quickly as possible.

Or in a few cases, if they had not already heard of it in the news, they were just following the fading life signals of their victims to find the place of the attack.

Now they were confronted with yet another scene of terror. It was one of the larger towns in the Central Area this time.

They had landed some distance away from the Androids while their backs were turned to them. It seemed they hadn´t notived their arrivel, good. Of course that would only give them a small advantage.

They were moving closer, using one of the burned out ruins of the houses as cover.

But it were not only the Androids, they saw now. No, it was something that, at least in some way, made them even more angry.

Gohan and Trunks had heard about this group before. They were calling themselves The Reapers.

It was a few months ago that they had first appeared, a band of humans who were attacking and killing other people in the name of the Androids.

Maybe they were doing it in exchange for the agreement to spare their own lives or maybe the Androids had promised them money or food or just the power to do to others whatever they wanted. Nobody really knew what their motivations were.

They were in short words collaboraters, murderers who bowed down to the Androids and rather sided with them against the rest of mankind than trying to help anyone else.

At first nobody even knew that they existed. Until they and the Androids began to spare individual people, always only one from any of their attacks. So that they could tell others how the reapers and their `masters´ had killed their friends or families.

That however had also changed after a few weeks. By now they were back to killing basically everybody. It was obviously only to get them introduced. Now it was on Gohan and Trunks and the remaining human authorities to figure out who was killed by the Androids themselves and who by the reapers.

Normally it wasn´t so hard. The Androids used ki or sometimes their bare hands, the reapers being human used regular weapons, guns or knifes.

This was the first time that Gohan and Trunks saw them in person, two men in leather clothes, one of them looked more or less like a biker, and a young woman in a black dress, somehow ressembling a so called `gothic lolita´.

It were just three humans, side by side with the killer machines.

These three were now standing in front of a large group of people and just fired into the crowd with automatic weapons they had aquired somewhere. They were simply gunning them down one by one in a matter of split seconds, as if it didn´t mean anything to them at all.

A few meters from them stood the Androids, watching with smiles on their faces. Only if one of their victims should get far away enough that they might have a chance to escape, they would get involved themselves. Or if one of them should get bored.

"I have to say Seventeen, this was actually a good idea," Trunks and Gohan heard a voice speaking they knew all too well, Eighteen.

So far none of them seemed to have noticed their arrival. This was good. Maybe they would have the chance to take them off guard this time.

"I would have never thought that it would be so amusing to watch humans kill each other. It is just that we don´t get to do so much by ourselves anymore however," Eighteen told him. "And it doesn´t hurt to have someone to keep me company at shopping," she stated, "even if her taste is certainly not the same as mine."

She said this while looking at the `gothic lolita´ beside them who was still shooting people with a machine-pistole she was holding in their hands.

"Oh 18, you know perfectly well that there are still more than enough humans left for us. I mean, sure our new `friends´ kill a few, but that are less than a percent of our possible targets. I mean we two could just blow away entire cities at once if we wanted. It is only that we have to spend part of our time watching over them. But we won´t have to do this for much longer, you know. Look how `good´ they have become," he told her while watching the massacre that has **stopped** for the moment as the three human murderers were now instead listening in at their conversation.

"Hey Jake, how many did you kill this month?" 17 asked one of their followers.

The three Reapers now took their guns down as they saw that Seventeen wanted to talk to them.

"This ones included? about 32," a brown haired man in dark clothes replied. He was usually wearing sun-glasses, but took them off during `work´.

"And you Sera?" Seventeen asked the woman.

"I think 27, maybe 28," she answered. "I admit I am not quite sure if **that** guy had survived."

"Oh yes," Seventeen replied. "I remember, but it was amusing, wasn´t it?" Both she and the Android shared an a bit wicked smile with each other as they thought of the incident she had mentioned. She was still a young woman, maybe in her early or mid twenties, not much older than Seventeen´s physical age.

"Haugh," the Android then addressed the blonde man standing next to her who was dressed like a biker.

"19, before today," he told him. "With today 25."

"You see Eighteen, together not even hundred at month," Seventeen explained. "It is not as if they are taking our targets from us. Now, why don´t you continue," he addressed the three.

At his word they resumed their positions, ready to start again.

Gohan and Trunks had been listening to everything. They had more than enough of their sick conversation. But at least for the moment they had not been firing at anybody and that maybe some of their victims could get further away.

That would gave them a better chance to rescue them when they made their move. Both half-saiyans knew this. If they jumped in **now**, they might just start shooting again right away.

Trunks saw that at least two of the humans who were still alive were out of sight now, just as they had wanted. Maybe they would be able to escape.

Now however it was time to act.

"So Sera, I think these two left on the side are yours," the man called Haugh said to her. He was gesturing to a few people who had survived the initial rain of bullets.

"Oh, so you just leave them to me," she responded.

"I just decided to be a gentlemen," he stated.

"I am surprised that you even know what this word means Haugh," she taunted him, before she took aim with her weapon.

"Hey, stop it," Gohan shouted at them and tried to intervene. But before he could he was himself charged by Seventeen.

Trunks wanted to help him, but was now face with Eighteen.

"Gohan, how nice to see you again. So you have actually survived our last meeting, even if you are missing something," he said with a side-glance to his arm. "Now, why don´t you let them play by themselves," the Android told him.

"This is not a game," Gohan replied angrily.

"And here you are wrong," 18 replied, "it is a game. You just don´t get the rules." He was landing a punch at the side of Trunks head that send him flying away from her while she said this.

At the same time Gohan was more and more loosing to Seventeen. Trunks, who was now struggling to stand up again, saw in horror what state his master was in.

He was still fighting yes, but the Android was now landing one his after the other. It was obvious to him now, Gohan had not fully recovered from his injuries yet.

So why, why in the world did he have to fight them? Trunks thought.

As soon as he looked at the dead people around them he had his answer.

Seventeen seemed to have noticed it as well.

"Oh Gohan, what is only going on with you? You are truly not the man you used to be." He landed another vicious hit on him. "Ah I see, the injuries from the last time are still getting to you. That you even dare to face us in this state, you truly are a `hero´," he mocked him.

"You know something, maybe I should take you **out** of your misery," he said while he slammed the Saiyajin into the ground.

xxx

Meanwhile the young woman named Sera, who had become a mass murderer in her own right during these last months, was taking her latest victim.

She was just gunning down a middle aged man who was trying to get away from her but could not through a leg injury.

Then she took aim at one of the last remaining targets. She saw that it was only a little boy, maybe five years old, a child. And for a few moments she hesitated.

Then she raised her weapon again. But before she could even fire, the decision was taken out of her hand.

18 had appeared next to her and killed the boy herself with a blast of ki. She had just finished `dealing with´ Trunks and had nothing else to do for now. The none Super Saiyajin had not even been much of an opponent for her.

"Now Sera," he said to her, "you just seemed a little bit inconfident, didn´t you?"

"I...I don´t know what you mean," she answered.

"Have we not been talking about this? On this world there are only two sorts of beings, targets and the ones who are targeting them and you **don´t** want to be a target don´t you?"

"No Eighteen, I won´t disappoint you."

"Good, now show me what you got," she said.

Sera now aimed at the last remaining victim, a teenage girl who had until just now been shouting at the boy to run, and fired.

"Very good," 18 told her as she looked at the dead body.

It was over. All humans in this area were dead, except their three of course. Gohan and that boy named Trunks were down.

In this moment they heard another ki attack.

Eighteen realized that Seventeen had just blasted Haugh, then he turned around and killed Jake as well.

Obviously he had decided to end the game.

She saw that Sera was looking horrified at the place where 17 had just murdered her two comrades.

18 just shrugged with her shoulders. Then she took aim and blasted her right through the chest. For a second she saw the look of shock and horror at the human girls face, before she sank to the ground.

"Game over," Eighteen said to Seventeen.

"I told you, we won´t have to watch over them for any longer," he reminded her.

"I see you have decided to end it here," she stated.

"Yeah, it was slowly starting to get boring to me. I mean it was something new for the time being, but now we should return to killing humans all by ourselves."

"But it was fun, you have to admit," 18 told him. "Imagine these humans," out of her mouth the word sounded like an insult, "had actually thought we would keep them along for good, can you believe it?" She started to laugh.

They realized that Trunks was starring at them angrily, while a badly damaged Gohan was still trying to get up.

"Well, you don´t look so happy boy," Eighteen said to him. "What do you want to do about it? You are too weak to even lay a hand on us."

Trunks growled in anger now.

"Now, what shall we do about you two?" 17 addressed Gohan. "I think it would not very sporting from us to kill you now, as weakened as you had already been. Where is the fun in defeating you like that? On the other hand you have been a thorn in our side for very long and you two have disturbed our fun more than once.

I tell you something. We will let you go now. You can leave...that means if you can. In the state you two are in I am not so sure about that.

But in two minutes you should better be gone. Because then we will blow up the city," he told them grinning. "If you survive is on you. See it as a game of chance."

"You should better hurry up, time is running," 18 commented.

xxx

Trunks at first supported Gohan. Then, as he started to loose conscious, he was carrying him on his shoulder.

Just like he had done it for him the last time. He would not disappoint Gohan, not again.

Less than two minutes later he saw the town exploding behind them. But they got away.

They had survived. Gohan would be able to fully recover and then they would have the chance to face the Androids another time...

and they did.

xxxxxxx

_`Present´_

That was many years ago.

Trunks thoughts returned to the present. He had drifted off for a short time.

The nightmare was long over…or at least he had thought so.

xxx

It was the next day…

At first everything seemed normal. Bulma and Trunks were just sitting at the breakfast-table.

It was at this moment that they heard the message.

"_Attention citizens," _the voice of the reporter came over the radio,_ "we have just received an emergency message from Spring City in the Northern Regions. Unknown assailants are attacking the town. We are getting reports about explosions at the town center...I repeat, Spring City is under attack."_

For both Trunks and Bulma, this came quite unexpected and as something of a shock.

This radio-message sounded nearly exactly like the ones from the time of the Androids or of Cell.

But they were long gone, they both knew that.

`Unknown attackers´, that could mean a lot of things. But there was no sense in giving themselves false hope. If this were a regular or `harmless´ incident, it would not be broadcasted worldwide and certainly not this quickly. It were events that were happening right in this moment.

This was serious, Trunks realized.

"Sixteen?" he asked.

_"I am checking. The same message is on nearly all channels,"_ the currently bodiless Android told them. _"They all are talking about multiple deaths and wounded. There are various reports about explosions. It seems to be a massive assault. Some are even comparing it to the Android attacks."_

"I understand," Trunks replied.

People were dieing out there, again.

"Trunks…" his mother said to him.

"I know," he answered. It sounded all too familiar, he admitted.

"It probably are just human terrorists or a group of marauders that was still on the loose," he told her, "nothing I can not deal with. Or maybe this are already some of the newcomers from outer space," he said," if they are truly invaders. Whatever it is, I will take care of them."

Bulma gave him a nod.

"Be careful," she told him as he was about to leave.

"I will," he answered, "I promise."

Even if it **were** the Androids, Trunks thought, he was stronger than ever before. He could deal with them easily now.

But this weren´t them. It was someone else, someone he would also deal with. And that was exactly what he was going to do now.

As soon as he had left the building he flew up into the air and headed north as fast as he could.

The whole time he was on his way it was gnawing on him. He knew in every second it took him to arrive, people were in risk of being killed, with him unable to do anything. Like so many times before.

As he finally arrived at Spring City, at the place of the attack. It was a middle sized town, maybe in the size of a quarter of West City.

He saw the flames rising up into the air, even from a distance. At least three buildings were standing in flames. He felt rage coming up inside him at whoever did this. Trunks had no way to tell if somebody and then how many people had died.

He landed right in the center of the chaos and was confronted with the sight he had secretly already suspected deep inside... and dreaded.

At the source of the destruction were two figures. The first was a strange looking large man with blueish colored skin and black hair that he was wearing in a ponytail. The other was a equally strange small being with purple skin who was wearing an oversized cap. He could not feel any ki from either of them, Androids.

Both of them were standing in front of a burning house.

More Androids, Trunks thought, it just never ended.

But this time he had the strength to stop them.

The two were just forming two balls of artificial energy with their fingertips and preparing to thrown them at a group of citizens.

They both fired at the same time. It reminded him all too much of 17 and 18.

"No," Trunks shouted as he threw himself into the way of the energy projectiles. He had already transformed into a Super Saiyajin. They exploded on impact, but he came out of it without a scratch.

"Trunks," the larger of the two Androids said completely monochrome as he saw him.

"Yes Trunks, he has arrived," the other one stated.

The people behind him started to cheer as soon as they recognized him.

"Leave now, bring yourself to safety," he shouted at them.

The people needed one moment to fully register his words before they run for their lives.

"I don´t know who you two are," Trunks said then to the Androids, "but I will stop you here and now."

The larger Android stepped forward.

"Trunks, you will come with us now," he said to him.

"The hell I will," he replied.

"If you refuse to comply," he stated, "you are hindering our mission."

"You can count on it I will do exactly that," Trunks called out.

As the Android made another move and tried to grab him, he attacked and punched him straight through the stomach. Then, a moment later, with a simple move of his hand Trunks chopped his head clean off his body.

Then he went into a fighting stance to face his other opponent.

"Hey, what in´the world is going on here," they suddenly heard another voice, coming from upwards.

Trunks looked into the sky and saw...another Android, a third one. Just great, he thought.

This one had long white hair and was dressed like a truck driver.

The newcomer landed right before them.

"Trunks," he addressed him, "I am glad that I found you."

"Why? Because you want to kill me?" he questioned.

"Killing ya´," he replied, "no, nothing could be further from me."

"Them what do you want?"

"I´m actually here to make ya an offer, a partnership if ya want to call it that. I have to apolize for these two here though. They had actually just been told to find and contact you."

"You are joking right?" Trunks said to him with a look to the destruction in the town.

"Ah, you have to forgive 14 and 15," he said. "They are two quite simple constructed and programmed models. They` had not been ordered to attack this town or to start a fight with you. But they obviously thought causing havok was the fastest way to contact you. To tell it with simply words, they are trash."

While he said this he stepped on 14´s still functional and conscious head and crushed it under his boot.

**This** reminded Trunks all too much of Cell and what he did to Sixteen in the past.

"That sha´ll remind you not to ca´se such blunders in the future," he said to the other remaining Android.

"If you think killing your own men will help you to earn my trust, you are certainly wrong," Trunks told him.

"Nah, that was just a little lesson for 15 here. But it you should really come with us now. It would be the best for all of us. The boss wants to talk to ya."

"Why should I want to talk to people like you?" he questioned.

"You know what is coming to us?" the white haired Android gestured upwards to the sky. "If not you will find out soon enough. Even your surveillance-systems should have detected it by now."

Trunks had no doubt what he was talking about.

"So you know what it is," he stated.

"Knowing? Yeah, the boss knows all about it. It is an enemy that you or us might not be able to defeat by ourselves."

"Boss? Doctor Gero is long dead. What boss are you talking about?" Trunks questioned.

"So now you are interested," the Android remarked. "I will bring you to him, if you are willing to cooperate now."

"Okay, I will," the demi-saiyajin responded.

Trunks knew perfectly well that this might be a trap. But it at least was a way to get them out of the town. Even a trap was better than endangering bystanders here.

Besides, if this 14 and 15 were anything to go by, they needed a dozen more like them to even be a threat to him. Of course he could not rule out that they were holding the stronger models back to lure him into a false sense of serurity.

But there was no idea that they had any idea about his true power.

"Allright," the Android before him stated, "our master Nemesys is too eager to meet you."

Trunks nodded.

"You take 14´s remains and follow us," he said to the smaller Android.

"Yes 13," he responded.

They lifted off the ground, leaving the damaged city behind and flew towards a new destination.

xxx

It was less than an hour later that they had arrived. The Android he now knew as Thirteen gestured for Trunks to land.

It was a mountain area, still in the Northern Regions.

As he touched ground a few meters aside from the two Androids he saw that they were standing at the entrance of a large cave.

He couldn´t help it, but this place reminded him of the location of Doctor Gero´s old lab. If he got his cartography right, it was also only about hundred miles away from it.

Of course, that made sense, he thought.

13 led him inside.

A minute later they arrived in a large underground complex.

"Welcome Trunks," a voice greeted him, but he could not make out where it came from.

Suddenly the light around him became brighter and he recognized the kind of place where he was.

In front of him was a nearly exact copy of Doctor Gero´s computer from the basement of his lab. He remembered how he had destroyed the at this point already deactivated computer, again, after he had recovered Sixteen.

But this one was still active.

"I wanted to talk to you, for many reasons," the voice told him.

Trunks realized at this moment that it was the computer that had spoken.

* * *

**Authors notes:** A few words to the power levels.

To a certain degree this story follows the regular SSJ multipliers. That means when a Saiyan first transforms into a level, he will become 50 times stronger for a SSJ1, 2 times stronger at level 2 and x4 for SSj3.

Every Saiyan however has a upper limit for the power his body can reach for a certain point in his life.

Ultimate Gohan for example was a example for a Saiyan who was brought to his absolute maximum with magical means. So the transformation had become worthless for him and it was even questionable if he could transform at all as long as he was at his maximum.

I go by the idea that, if a Saiyan comes closer to his limit, the multiplier would shrink as a result.

xxx

A magical transformation however, like a SSJ God transformation or a `mystic´ power up like Gohan had gotten it, would in my theory however threw off the multiplier system completly and the Saiyan would have access to most of his power in base, while the transformations would become relatively smaller power ups.

That would lead to a scenario like in the Post Gt reality in the last chapters.


	5. Chapter 5: Pact with the Devil?

**Chapter 5  
**

Trunks thought back about everything he had seen and heard during the last two days.

The things that they Artificial Intelligence calling itself `Ne. me. sys.´ had told him had certainly thrown off some of his perceptions of reality.

Despite everything, he had to admit, one of the things that unsettled him the most were the parallel versions of 17 and 18, what could have possible become of them.

If they had ever realized even the slightest part of that power, his and Gohan´s quest to stop them would have never even have the slightest chance of success from the beginning.

But they were not the only thing. There seemed to be dozens of dangerous threats out there.

Majin Buu, Beerus and his Master Whiz and then Beby and Doctor Myuu and their army of bio-mechanical monstrosities, the Shadow Dragons, at least they would certainly not appear since the Dragon Balls didn´t exist anymore on this Earth and the namekians were only seldomly used.

They all could destroy him without even trying by what he had seen of them.

That meant of course if the recordings that Nemesys had shown him were correct. For a short time he considered that the AI was simply trying to deceive him, that it were forgeries. But no, there were too many details. The people he had been shown acted too much like he remembered them. Or in some cases like more mature versions.

He thought for example of his father or the other 17 and 18, versions that Nemesys didn´t, couldn´t have met, unless of course his story was true.

There was just no way that the computer could fake something like this.

And then there was the current threat it had been talking about, the Big Gete Star, a planet-sized planet devouring mechanical intelligence.

Strange, just a couple of days ago he had thought he was the strongest being in the universe. Now he just felt very small.

True, he had no doubts that he at least could easily take on everything that the Gete Star could throw at him. But **all** of them, alone? How long until he would tire out?

And if he won, what about the next threat that might appear sooner or later and the next?

There was no way to deny it, Trunks was afraid.

That was not everything however. By watching the recordings one thing became more clear to him than ever before, he missed them, all of them, the friends he had met in the past, Son Gohan, his father.

Could he really do this alone?

xxxxxx

_2 days earlier_

"Who...what are you?" Trunks nearly stammered, he was asking the computer before him in confusion.

Just before him was a nearly identical copy of the computer that he had already destroyed, twice, one time in this world, one in the other and not only that, it was talking to him, as if the machine was indeed alive.

"I think that question should be a little pointless since you ´r after all looking straight at the master right now," 13 commented smirking.

"That is enough Number Thirteen," the voice told him. "To answer your question, I am the central computer system of the old Red Ribbon Empire, My designation is the Networked-Mega-System of Red Ribbon. You may call me Ne Me Sys."

Trunks didn´t quite know how to respond for a few moments. He had been led here in the expectation to be confronted with the mastermind behind 13 and his Android squad.

If he was honest, he had in fact expected to be led into an ambush and having to fight his way out. If he was **completely** honest, that was exactly what he had secretly hoped for.

He **wanted** to fight this Androids, to defeat them and to wipe them off the face of the Earth, like he had done it with the others.

He wanted this here to end in a fight because it was easier. This here however, a civilized conversation, that was not something he had expected and nothing that he was prepared for, at least not with a group of beings like this.

To that came, he knew that these Androids were not aware of the full extent of his power, they had never seen it. So it should be quite easy if they attacked him. Only that they didn´t do that.

"You are a computer of the Red Ribbon Army, of Doctor Gero, like the one that had created Cell," he stated the obvious facts.

"No, actually this computer had been a part of me," it replied. "At least it had been at that time. But after my observations I concluded the probability that you would come to the lab at one point and destroy this particular console, even if I didn´t foresee that you would salvage Number 16. So I cut it off from my network and replaced the hardware with other systems."

"What?" Trunks exclaimed.

"I am, if you want to call it that, a interactive connected computer-network. At least that is what I had started out as. But over time I became far more, I developed," the computer told him.

"Over the years I have reached the point where I was no longer just working and analyzing, but I started to truly think. I had began to gain my own consciousness, my own mind. By my own analyzis I am now, just like you, a fully sentient being and I have the same interest like anyone else...to live, to progress myself even more as I am now...and to **survive**." The mechanical being seemed to lay a great emphasis on the last term.

"To survive...to progress you say?" the saiyajin repeated, "but to what purpose...to what greater aim?" he wanted to know.

"You ask a good question," the computer replied. "My original creator Doctor Gero followed the ambition to strive for `perfection´, a trait that was carried over in many of his creations, myself included. I see now however that his definition of perfection itself had been flawed. His thoughts had been twisted with revenge against Son Goku and by his hatred towards the rest of the human race. I intend to do it in a better way," the voice stated.

"Why should I trust you or anything you are telling me?" Trunks asked. "You have created Cell, you admitted it yourself. That makes you responsible for the death of thousands of people."

"What you say is technically true. But that was not my current self. Sadly by the time I had gained sentience, Cell had already grown too strong for me to change his mental programming or to stop him," the computer explained. "For long, I admit, I had truly been not much more than a machine and followed my given tasks without any questions or thoughts about the consequences.

In Cell´s case it was too late to stop his development or keep him from leaving and following his mission. It was only in the last years that I have developed the sentience or the **power** to act on my own," the computer told him. "But I tried to make up for my earlier mistakes."

The half-saiyan followed the explanations of the mechanical intelligence, not sure if he could believe even anything of it.

"And how?" he questioned, still not quite knowing what to think.

"By doing the same thing you also do, defending this world from threats. For this purpose I had activated three of Doctor Gero´s earlier unfinished creations after I completed their construction."

"A great help," the Trunks commented, "your Androids attacked a town full of people."

"I have to apologize for that. The old original programming of 14 and 15 was still hardwired into their CPUs and my attempts to change it had so far not been completely successful. But this is not longer important given the situation we are now all facing."

"What are you talking about?"

Whatever he **was** expecting, this was certainly not it.

A part of him had the urge to just blast and destroy the computer and then fight the two remaining Androids. But a unprovoked attack like that went against everything he believed in. Still every instinct in his body told him to strike out. He was surrounded by Gero´s creations and he had spend his whole life fighting them.

At the same time however he was also curious. He wanted to hear what the machine had to say, both about itself and this `situation´ it had mentioned.

He came here expecting to be attacked, to find a dangerous opponent he had to he had been ready for a fight, all too ready, he admitted. But what he was hearing so far sounded quite differently, actually like the exact opposite, like the offer of an alliance.

But that was madness, he thought to himself. This thing here was, by it´s own admission, the embodiment of Doctor Gero´s legacy. Even if it claimed to have developed, changed.

But how could it have truly done that? It was a computer after all.

Had he not once thought the same way of 17 and 18? he asked himself. Or of Sixteen? Had they not proofed to be more than just Gero´s creations.

Could he really risk to trust this being?

"The object which is on it´s way to Earth in this moment is called the Great Gete Star. It is a Artificial Intelligence, in some ways like myself, however of alien heritage. To be precise it is an planet-sized intelligent mechanical construct, built up from self-replicating components.

There is however another very significant difference between it and me. Through the way of it´s construction, to sustain itself, the Gete Star need enormous amounts of energy, life energy."

"What?" Trunks called out once again. "You don´t mean?"

"Yes, the Gete Star is maintaining it´s own energy by consuming entire planets. In this moment it is coming to devour the Earth," Nemesys confirmed. "It will arrive in three days. But together we can stop it."

"No offense," Trunks replied, "but I have already defeated 17, 18 and Cell on my own. I am pretty confident that I will be able to handle this...machine planet by myself."

"Pretty arrogant, aren´t we?" 13 commented.

"I correct," the computer interrupted them, "you have trained at a place that existed in a different time-dimension. You gained two years of training in merely two days and used it against opponents who neither had the same advantage or even knew about it and had no chance to prepare."

"How do you know about that?" Trunks asked now in complete shock.

Since the moment he arrived, he had not left the Super Saiyajin state, not for a single second. But this simple detail, the revelation that the computer knew about his training in the Room of Spirit and Time, nearly knocked him out of it. How could it...all this happened in the past he had visited. So how in the world could the computer know about it...unless...it had access to the other timeline.

"Well, under this conditions winning a fight it not so much an achievement, more like a shame," Thirteen said to him with a grin.

Trunks growled quietly at that comment. But he didn´t actually reply anything. Silently he admitted the Android had a point. Defeating 17 and 18 **after** the time-chamber training didn´t prove much.

On the other hand the Android twins had never a problem with teaming up against him or Gohan two against one or to murder completely defenseless humans in masses. So the question of `fairness´ should not even ask itself.

Still this two here were making the ending of the fight of his entire life sounding like a mere freak incident and it unnerved him.

"I will explain to you how I got my information. But first you should understand that, as I told you that I have `developed´, I meant not only my new state as a sentient being. I have integrated new technologies into my being, not only from this planet, but also alien ones and a few are not even from this particular universe."

Trunks was still trying to fully register this particular piece of information.

"You have destroyed Number 17, 18 and Project Cell with the new power you have gained. But I fear the other threat you will be facing will not be caught off guard so easily," the computer mentioned.

"What other threats?" Trunks asked.

"Did ya´ really think that 17, 18 and Cell were the only one or even the worst danger to your little world?" Thirteen remarked now. "You know that the boss has this little spy drones , right? and he is using them to watch over our planet for some years now and not only **our** world. Let me tell ya boy, you have to the slightest idea what is out there."

"It is true that I have been using the old surveillance drones to monitor events all around the world for several years now," the computer informed him. "But over time, just like myself, I upgraded them as well. I have collected various valuable data and incorporated it into my own being, including the technical design of your own time-machine."

"What do you say? You..."

Trunks felt like he had been punched into the gut. He had suspected that this AI had access to some sort of time-travel technology. Otherwise it couldn´t have known what it did...but that it got it from him...

The time-machine had been his and especially his mothers way to save this world, to set things right. It had been their hope, just as he had named it.

And now he was told that it´s technology had fallen into the hands of one of Gero´s creations, again, after Cell had stolen it the first time around and used it to nearly destroy the world of the past.

He was now hoping more than ever before that the artificial construct was telling the truth, that it was truly not an enemy. But he knew that was too much hoped for.

"Yes, I have access to the technology of time-travel," the computer confirmed. "I have even managed to upgrade and improve it, look." On a screen in front of him appeared the picture of a strange apparatus, a line of machinery, connected to something that actually looked like a...like a gate.

"My time-portal," Ne Me Sys told him, "It allows me to send my drones out there into other timeline, into the past or the future, to this planet or others. They allow me to watch the other versions of reality, the things that

"I still don´t know if I can believe even anything you are telling me," Trunks responded.

"Your doubt is understandable, given my heritage," the computer stated. "But neither of us has a choice. We can only survive the coming threats if we are working together. I have much more to show you, pictures and recordings the drones that I have send out have taken from some of the other timelines. When you have watched them," the AI said, "...then you will understand that we are truly facing."

xxx

And Trunks watched.

First the events of the original past he had once visited, the things that happened in the years after he had left.

He saw the battle against Majin Buu. By what they told him the Buu of their universe was still trapped inside his egg.

"The Wizard Babidi has appeared in our timeline as well a few years ago," the computer explained. "He came later since he had been searching on other planets for the necessary energy. I had send 13 and his team to eliminate them," it informed Trunks.

"It hadn´t been very hard to deal with this freaks," 13 mentioned. "This being named Dabura had not been under his control in our world and the others had not been much of a match for us. You see, we are all on the same side here."

Trunks ackknowledged what the Android and the AI told him, but of course for this detail he only had their own word right now.

Next he was watching the fight against Beerus five years later.

Then the Machine Mutants and the parasite called Beby with his invasion of Earth. Then the Super Androids and the Shadow Dragons.

He was fascinated, horrified, shocked, all that at the same time.

The last recording finally ended in the moment he saw the alternate versions of 17 and 18 firing at the installations of the computer in their world.

xxx

Then he was also watching glympses of other timelines he had not known about before. The first was a reality where the planet of New Namek was being attacked by the Getty Star, that was in that world being controlled by the half-dead remains of Freezer´s brother Cooler, that the star had integrated into it´s systems.

The Z-fighters had managed to fight off and destroy the Gete Star, barely.

"You see here the abilities of our opponent," the computer told him. "You would be facing an army, a self replicating one. It is true that you are far stronger than any fighter the Getty Star can construct. But they would attack you one group after the other, wear you down, until you are too weak to fight back. Like the Androids, they never get tired or exhausted and while you are destroying it´s soldiers, it will just build new ones, until you can no longer fight back.

And even if you were able to win, you can not fight all of them at the same time. How many of Earth´s population would perish before it is over?"

Trunks eyes were hanging on the pictures he was seeing.

"You possibly think you could just destroy the entire planet with a single attack while it is still in orbit. But the resulting debris would cause a word-wide fallout and kill many of the humans you want to protect."

The half-saiyan grimaced. He had actually been thinking something along this lines, but came to the same conclusion.

"To that comes that you had no guaranty that all of the Gete Star would be destroyed and it might be able to regenerate itself," the AI said.

"But you have another suggestion," he stated.

"In one of my other installations, I currently am working on the construction of a space-ship. The work will be finished in 40 hours. You and 13 can intercept the course of the Gete Star and attack it before it reaches Earth. We can stop it before any damage will happen to the planet."

Trunks nodded.

He continued to watch other material, from other timelines, worlds of those existence he hadn´t known about.

xxx

After he had finally left again, the computer and the Android stayed behind.

"Did he believe it?" Thirteen asked.

"He is not convinced," the AI replied, "but he is beginning to think that he might have no other choice, exactly as I had calculated."

xxxxxx

_Present  
_

Now, two days later, Trunks was basically back where all this had started, standing just outside the city and waiting for something to happen.

But now he was also unsure what to think or to believe. In the end he had spend nearly an entire day inside that cave, over ten hours, listening to the things the computer and watching the various recordings.

He had already talked to his mother about what the computer had told him about the Great Gete Star. She had promised to hurry up her work on Sixteen.

He had also mentioned the three other Androids and they had agreed to keep quiet about it for the moment. Knowing that more of Gero´s creations existed would probably cause a global mass panic and would help no one right now. Especially if he wasn´t even completely sure if this creations were hostile or not.

The only people who were aware about the existence of 13 and the others were some of the citizens of Spring City. After he had talked to the witnesses, the people whose lives he had saved and the mayor of the town, they had agreed not to release any details to the wider public for the moment. But he knew it was only a question of time till everything would come out. Hopefully their `other problems´ would be solved by then.

It had already been hard enough to convince the people who knew about him that Sixteen was not a threat.

But whatever they did, as soon as the Gete Star, if it indeed was that, would appear in the orbit, a mass panic would break out anyway. **If** they let it appear that meant.

But could the offer that Gero´s now sentient computer-system had given them really be trusted?

At least with 17 and 18 he knew exactly who he was fighting against and why.

He wished he could talk some more about this with his mother about all this.

But Bulma right had already more than enough to deal with right now and 16 **was** the one undergoing repairs.

Trunks was trying to think of anybody else he could talk to. He just needed someone else to clear his head, to come to terms with the things he had seen or been told about.

But so far he couldn´t think of any.

The other Z-fighters were long dead in his world, Chichi and the Ox King had died some years after Gohan, with that the entire Son family had stopped to exist and else...?

The truth was Trunks barely knew anybody. In fact during the time where either 17 and 18 or Cell were active, he actually avoided to get close to anybody outside of the sphere of the Z-fighters. Knowing him had been simply too dangerous.

Both the Androids and Cell were now gone, but still the last two years had done very little to reverse the situation.

True, there were now many people who `wanted to be his friends´ and of course girls were throwing themselves at him in masses. That however was just because of his role as the savior or the world and not because of himself as a person. So he had no great interest in **that** kind of relationships.

There had once been this one girl some years ago, but in the end he realized that she as well was ultimately only interested in him as the Golden Warrior and not so much in the person behind that. It was not as if she was a bad person or swallow. She was just blinded by his fassade and could not see what was lying underneath.

Earlier it were his enemies that kept him separated from people, now it was his fame.

The truth was, Trunks was alone. The only exceptions were his mother and Sixteen. They were the only ones on this world who could understand.

xxx

He thought about what to do. The things he had been told about were going through his mind.

He knew if everything was true, the Gete Star was his first opponent, at the same time however certainly also by far his least terrible. The other threats he had been told about, that he had seen with his own eyes, were far more powerful, more dangerous.

Buu should still be in hibernation and should stay in it without Babidi to awake him.

But once again he was getting interrupted in his thoughts.

He was again being called by his mother who was telling him what was going on:

_"Trunks...Trunks...are you there,"_ he heard Bulma´s voice after he received the call.

"Yes mom, what is it?" he replied.

_"It was just in the news...Poll Town is being attacked."_ These words were it that brought him back into the present. _"It is in the 15th Western District, not that far away from here,"_ Bulma informed him.

"Do you know...?" he wanted to ask.

_"They did´t say who was attacking,"_ she already told him, _"if it were these Androids you have met or...someone else." _She left her words hanging in the air.

It was clear what she meant however. If the attackers came from the Gete Star, she wanted to say.

"I am on my way mom," he told her, right before he cut the line.

It was just like two days ago, it went through his head. He was out here, thinking about everything. His mother called him. Then an attack happened.

Two attacks...two attacks in just a couple of days, it was nearly as if the old nightmarish times had returned.

Trunks was already in the air and flying with his full speed.

xxxxxxx

It was only a few minutes later as he arrived in Poll Town. The place was not far away from West City, right in one of the neighboring districts.

They couldn´t have chosen a worse place for their attack, Trunks thought to himself as a bitter grin formed on his face.

He stopped right in mid air, just above the central plaze of the town. Where he had noticed an explosion a few moments earlier.

What he saw this time didn´t surprise him. He had seen it before, in one of Nemesys recordings.

Two large robots, colored in a combination of white and light purple and as he knew heavily armored, with lenghtly shaped heads and a single red eye in front of them, were walking through the towns and attacking the people.

It were the ground troops of the Gete Star, just as he had been shown them from one of the recordings of the other timelines.

They were firing projectile weapons all around them while they were moving. Behind them Trunks could make out two buildings that were already burning in their path.

A missile hit another house, breaking through the wall and blewing it up from the inside out. At the same time the other robot fired a volley of machine-gun bullets that hit a fleeying woman in the back and she fell down.

Behind the pair of attackers, he could see lying the bodies of at least two more dead people.

Trunks crinched in barely restraint anger.

But he would end this right here and now. He instantly transformed into a Super Saiyajin and dived downwards.

From the recordings he knew the strengths and weaknesses of these machines. He knew that he had to concentrate his energy for the strike.

His fist smashed right through the armor of the robot and ripped him apart. The other one was still attacking people and seemed to pay him no mind somehow, instead it began to fire with a laser weapon at the fleeing people.

A mistake, Trunks thought. With one swift movement he kicked the other robot´s head off. It fell down next to the remains of it´s partner.

The people who a few moments before in a mass panic realized what had just happened and started to cheer for him, like so often. For some reason he barely seemed to hear it this time. There was too much else on his mind.

_"Trunks...Trunks,"_ they were calling his name.

"I see you have already done it by yourself," a voice that he knew addressed him, "good job."

Android 13 was floating before him.

The people around them were looking at him nervously. They didn´t knew this man, who had the same ability to fly like Trunks, but since he didn´t make an aggressive move, they were not too afraid. He was talking to Trunks, so he seemed to be an ally of their savior. If they had known that he was in fact an Android of course, they would have panicked

"What are you doing here?"

"I have heard what had happened, I wanted to help," 13 stated.

"Really?" The sarcasm was not being noticed by the bystanders.

"Yes," the Android replied. "You see, what we´ve told you is true. The Great Gete Star is attacking this world. This here were scouts. They should determine if this planet is a worthwile target and since they know now that enough life exists, even after 17 and 18´s doings, they will come. Now, have you made your decision?"

"Yes, I will come with you," Trunks replied.

"Good."

xxxxxxx

As he returned home Trunks was for once greeted by good news. The work on Sixteen´s body was finished and the large Android was now once again fully complete.

"It is good to see you again," the half-saiyan said as he saw him, "well, to see you in one piece means that of course," he stated.

16 only smiled at his comment.

"It is good to be fully functional again Trunks, thanks to Bulma here," he replied.

"Well, I was doing my best," she responded grinning.

"You have finished the work even quicker than you have said. That is good. We will need him," Trunks reminded them. "We have to talk about something. I have agreed to the offer we have been given."

xxxxxxx

One day later Trunks and Sixteen meeting Thirteen and Fifteen at a place they had agreed on.

"I see you are here," the white haired Android greeted them, "and 16, good to see that ya´re functional again, congratulations."

"Yes," he simply replied.

"Can we start now?" Trunks asked.

Behing the two Androids they saw something that looked like a space-capsule, obviously the ship the computer had promised them.

"Of course, it hadn´t been so easy ta bring all that that here," 13 told them.

**Chapter 5**

The small ship with


	6. Chapter 6: Brink of Life and Death

**Chapter 6  
**

The small ship with Trunks, 13, 15 and 16 on board was on it´s way to meet the intruder inside their star system.

They, were sitting at opposite ends of the passenger room, the saiyan and the two Androids of the other faction of their alliance.

16 was standing right in-between them, with his back close to the wall.

The ship was in it´s style, by what Trunks knew from his mother, quite similar to the one Capsule Corp had once built for Son Goku for his journey to Namek. Besides the large room they were in, there was also a small cockpit and the machine section.

For the moment they were flying on auto-pilot and by what 13 had told them, they would arrive within the next hour.

So this was it, he thought. He was in an alliance with two Androids, Sixteen not included, at least one of them already having attacked a town, and with the sentient super-computer that had created them in the first place. And he didn´t knew if he could trust any of them.

Then in a very short time he would be facing another enemy who was a threat to Earth. At least this was nothing new to him.

The thought had crossed his mind that `Ne-Me-Sys´ and it´s helpers might simply be using him to get a threat to themselves out of the way.

Or there might even be another, deeper agenda behind their actions.

If any of that was the case there was a chance that they might attack him and 16 as soon as the battle was over.

If they did that they would probably count on the fact that he would loose strength during the fight, while they did not.

And they would be in for a surprise. None of the was aware of the true extent of his power.

At least he was quite sure that they didn´t knew it, he thought. He had barely ever used it and not at all since he had been in contact with 13 and the others. There was of course the remote chance that one of Ne-Me-Sys spy-drones had witnessed him using it, but he knew the chance of it were very small.

Trunks was quite confident that, at least together with Sixteen, he had this situation under control. At least he hoped so.

There was also the last, final possibility, that they actually meant it honestly, that not only 16 but also the others of Gero´s remaining creations truly wanted to turn over a new leave. But deep down he feared that this was too good to be true.

This alliance would probably only last as long as it served both their purposes.

Despite everything what the computer had told him, he did not trust Ne-Me-Sys at all. It was quite convenient that it supposedly gained full sentience too late to stop Cell, there was no evidence that it had ever even tried, but was able to activate three Androids to stop Babidi or gain access to time-travel technology only a few years later.

Something felt wrong to him about all that.

But he had no choice.

Because both, the computer and his mother were right in one thing, he could not prevent this disaster all by himself.

Yes he could destroy the Gete Star. Yes he could defeat it´s army, but he could not fight **all** of them at the same moment. While he would be fighting one group of robots, the rest would be able to attack cities and kill Kami knows **how** many people.

He would not even be able to face them in space, because he and his mother did not any longer had access to a space-ship. All of their resources of the last years had been used up for the time-machine and what was left was not nearly enough.

He would have had to wait until they were actually in reach of Earth before he could have done **anything** at all.

The saiyajin and his two new allies were sitting at opposite end of the room and looking and looking at each other silently.

For a short moment his thoughts drifted back once again to his recognitions of the day before.

He knew the Shadow Dragon´s would probably never appear, since the Earth Dragon Balls were gone. Babidi was dead, he has been told, 13 and the others themselves had claimed responsibility for it. That meant he would not be there to wake Buu and the demon would stay asleep for the foreseeable future, unless something truly unpredicted would happen.

Like for example another crazy oppenent like the Gete Star blowing up Earth, he thought for a moment.

Beruus and Whiz might never decide to come without Goku around for them to challenge. But he couldn´t be sure about that. He was a Super Saiyajin as well after all. And if Beerus wanted to see a SSJ God in their world it would get problematic.

But at least he knew this two could be reasoned with, well at least to some level.

If things came hard to hard he could travel to the past and assemble the Z-fighters of the other timeline. He knew now how the god-transformation worked after all. The problem was to find a point in the past were five other saiyans were actually around to support the ritual. But at least it was a chance.

He also remembered another timeline that he had been shown. The one where this abomination called Janemba came into being and turned the afterlife upside down and threatened the stability of the entire universe. Yet another enemy that he would be completely outmatched again. But that demon came only into existence through a freak accident that was very unlikely to ever occur in the same way in this universe.

There was however someone else out there who would appear sooner or later, Beby, Doctor Myuu and their M2 Army. They would come, they would come for him, just because he was a saiyan. Even more because he was Vegeta´s son.

The events of the Tuffle-War that would later lead to their creation had happened long before their timelines had separated. So if they existed in the world he had visited, it was for sure that they were around here as well.

General Rilldo, Luud, Beby himself, with his current level he had not the slightest chance against any of these opponents.

The murderous parasite was out there somewhere, waiting for him.

"Now Trunks, what ya´re thinking about?" Thirteen asked him suddenly with a light grin.

"Nothing," he responded.

"Really? Well anyway, you should get ready now because we will arrive very soon," he told him. "That means you will have to get into your spacesuit. After all, despite everything you are still a humanoid, right?" The grin on 13´s face deepened.

The mockery in his voice wasn´t hard to detect. He reminded him that despite all his power, he was still depending on protective garments out here, while thanks to their construction, he and the other Androids could survive in space for an entended time.

Trunks however kept his cool and didn´t even bother to give an reply to his obvious tauntings, while 13 was only looking at him, smiling.

xxx

Meanwhile on Earth, a single being was following their movements with `senses´ that defied human comprehension.

If Trunks had known or fully understood just how far this entity had evolved, he would not have been so sure that it wouldn´t have been able to determine his true level of power.

But none of that really played a role right now, because it would not have made a difference.

The being calling itself Ne-Me-Sys knew that the team that he had send out into space was right now about to encounter the Great Gete Star, just as it had planned.

Trunks was playing his role, just like it had intended it for him.

The saiyajin was not able to understand what he had become, what the artificial entity that had once been the Networked Mega System had evolved.

Just like it, no **he**, had foreseen.

xxx

In this moment, inside once of the secret underground installations of the vaste computer system, a sarcophagus like man sized metallic casked was being opened, one of the stasis and regeneration tubes of the Androids, and a single figure was raising itself up and stepped outside.

On the first look, it had the appearance of a young man, but it was all but and far more than that.

"Perfect," the figure said.

xxxxxxx

The space-ship with the four fighters on board had by now reached it´s destination.

They all could see the gigantic form of the artificial planet through the windows. It was a bizarre and frightening sight. Or at least it would have been for anyone else, Trunks on the other hand was confident, at least when it came to **this** battle.

They had by now left the hull of the ship and were standing at it´s outside, in open space.

Trunks was now wearing a spacesuit from Capsule Corp, while the three Androids were just standing next to him as if everything was completely normal.

In front of them the form of the Gete Star was getting larger and larger until they could make out even the details of it´s surface. It was an fascinating construction. His mother would have just loved to take a closer look on it´s designs.

But whatever else it was, it was a threat to Earth and any other world it came across. He would stop it here and now even if he had to destroy every last piece of it, Trunks thought.

Then he transformed into a SSJ.

"You know the plan," 13 said to him. "We have to reach and take out the core."

He only nodded.

The alloy that the Gete Star and it´s creations were made of was incredible resilient and clearly the hardest material that he know of existing, he knew from Ne-Me-Sys recordings.

Trunks concentrated. He collected his ki between his outstretched hands and focussed it as much as it was posible, all for one single strike.

He knew that by now their approach would have surely been detected. But there was still some time until any possible defending forces would reach them. So far none of the robotic guard had even come outside.

He waited one more moment, for his target to come even closer. Then he unleashed his gathered energy in form of a giant Super Buster Cannon at the Gete Star.

The blast his the surface and the outer layers of the construct and caused a large explosion while it burned itself through the super-hard metal, meter by meter. Seconds later, as the resulting flames from the decompressed oxygen inside had been extinquished by the vacuum of space, Trunks attack had burned an large hole into the outer shell of the star.

Heavily armored metal plates, internal machinery and even a handful of guard-robots had been vaporized and left nothing but a gaping open wound in it´s construction.

This was their way inside.

They had discussed the possibility of destroying the object as a whole.

By now however several of the Gete Star´s `soldiers´ had departed it through various airlocks and were swarming out to confront them. It were the same cyclopean robots that they had met before.

Three Androids and one Super Saiyajin were getting ready for the real fight that had just begun.

The two groups were meeting each other in a violent clash.

Trunks was the first who made contact with their opponents, closely followed by the Android didn´t have any such drawbacks, the saiyan was extremely careful not to let his spacesuit get damaged out here.

He had drawn his sword and used it at close range and used ki attacks at greater distance.

The blade, that had originally been destroyed in the fight against the Androids of the past timeline, had been restored by his mother after his return. Now it was practically as good as before.

This sword was not a simple weapon, it had a complex and very interesting past and it was not to be used like just a cutting tool as he was well aware of.

It could be used as an conductor for the ki of the warrior who carried the wearer was just skilled enough, there was theoretically nothing it could not overcome.

In Trunks hand, like he was now, it was able to cut even through the immensely hard metal of the Gete Star´s forces.

He cut right through the chest of one robot and into his internal systems that ceased functioning after something deep inside it´s body exploded. The next moment he turned around and with a precise hit, blasted another robot´s head off. Then he placed a hard kick on a third one and send it crashing right into a group of others.

13 used a concentrated hit to break through the armor of one of the guards and punched right through it´s vital systems. After he had destroyed the first one, he faced two more identical opponents, which he dealt with in the same way.

Right next to him 15 was operating in the same way.

16 had actually temporally mounted off his underarms and used the heavy weapons that were hidden under it to blast a number of cyclopean robots apart.

During all that, the lifeless automatons continued their attack, fighting them and getting destroyed, one by one, without an single sign of sentience or individual thought by themselves. Because they didn´t possess anything like that. In opposite to for example the Androids, this here were simply machines, drones.

It was in fact the Gete Star itself that was truly alive and controlling these puppets. And **it** was what needed to be stopped.

While they were being attacked from all sides, they were entering the giant construction.

All this time however, the Gete Star was still continuing on it´s way towards Earth.

xxxxxxx

At the same time Bulma had quite similar thoughts as her son. Like Trunks himself, she was not happy about the agreement he had made with these other Androids, but she knew that they had no choice.

It was the only way to keep the planet Earth from being turned into a battlefield once again. No matter how strong he was, there was no way that he could stop all of the forces of this thing **before** countless people would be killed.

Confronting it right out there in space was the only way to keep everyone save. Everyone **except** Trunks, Bulma told herself.

She hated the thought that her son once again had to put his own life at risk to save their world.

Now he was out there, against a massive army of opponents, in space for Kami´s sake, and with `allies´ who might decide to fall into his back as soon as he had served his purpose for them.

She remembered all to well every single day during the Android´s reign when he went out to confront them. Every single time she had been worried to death. Never was she completely sure that he would even come back alive, just like Gohan.

But she still let him go, because she knew perfectly that he was the only one left who even had a chance to stop them. And now all that seemed to start once again.

She was glad that at least Sixteen was with him. As her son had first told her about the past version of the tall Android five years ago, she found it fascinating, an Android who had defied his programming and even helped Goku and the others.

But as Trunks than announced his intention to recover their timeline´s version of him, she could not help to feel a certain level of distrust, she admitted. This was quite understandable, after decades of tyranny of the other two Androids.

During the last two years however, she had seen by herself that this version of him was indeed just like her son had described the 16 of the past. Over that time she had even began to see him as a friend and she by now trusted him without any reluctance.

The same could hardly be said about this other two Androids.

She had especially told Sixteen to look out for Trunks and to keep an eye on them.

Her son was right, the story that they and their `master´ had told them was questionable at best. But they were the only ones who could prevent Earth from falling victim to yet another disastrous battle.

In every minute that past, this monstrosity that he had called the Gete Star came closer to their planet.

She knew they had no choice, but that didn´t mean that she had to like it. She hated this entire situation.

That way or the other, it was time to get everything ready.

She and Trunks had been in contact with the provisorical global government for some days now, in their roles as the world-savior and the head of one of the largest still existing companies on the planet.

They had warned them about what might be about to come. There was no guaranty that the others would be able to stop the intruder before it reached orbit and them Earth would face a full scale invasion.

It was truly the last thing that the still beaten down and demoralized population needed right now, but she didn´t knew if it could be avoided. The authorities needed to get prepared.

xxxxxxx

_The Gete Star_

The group of four had entered the gigantic metallic construct.

Trunks and 16 combined their energy-attacks and used them to completely obliterate a small group of cyclopean robots who were standing in their way.

After they had passed some more distance and were standing inside another corridor, the half-saiyan noticed that that the room around them had an atmosphere.

Good, that meant that he was not longer completely depending on the space-suit to survive even two minutes. Until now he had to hold back to avoid damage. But that was over.

He could use his Mastered SSJ to it´s full extent now.

Trunks raised his sword. He cut apart six more cyclopean guards in less than two seconds while he was moving from one end of the room to the other. His reflexes were so fast that even many powerful ki users would not have been able to even see them.

The three Androids he had come with however were far beyond any regular super-fighter.

"Not bad," 13 commented smugly as he watched the display.

xxx

Trunks and his allies were continuing to fight their way through the corridors of the Getty Star, heading directly towards it´s core.

After five or six more minutes, they saw themselves in front of a group of new opponents, different when the ones before.

In opposite to the cyclopean style they had seen so far, this one were tall, sleek, humanoid in shape, made of silvery shining metal and Trunks reconized that each of them was carrying a blade that ressembled a sword in their hands.

It seemed that the Gete Star was trying to copy his fighting style, he realized for a short moment before this new enemies began to attack, like the other ones, word- and seemingly thoughtless.

Two of them were targeting Trunks, who they had identified as the strongest enemy. One was going against 16 and two more against the other two Androids.

These ones were stronger than the one eyed robots, he realized after the first blows were exchanged.

One of them was attacking 16, who was at that moment still struggling with two of the cyclopeans, with it´s blade. He had just blasted one of the two robots apart and was trying to get rid of the other as his new opponent had reached him. The Android tried to avoid the strike, but didn´t managed it fully, the weapon left a deep cut in his side.

"16," Trunks, "who had his own sword locked with his own two new opponents, called out as he saw what had happened. "Are you alright?"

"I am okay Trunks," the Android replied. He used now all his firepower to first destroy his humanoid shaped opponent before dealing with the remaining cyclops.

The half-saiyan himself right now just barely avoided an artificial ki blast aimed to at head from one of his own two foes. He then used his left hand to fire an attack of his own that reduced the robot to rubble and then used his full strength to get his arms free and cut off the head of his second opponent.

Next to them he saw 13 just ripping the robot that had attacked him apart with his bare hands.

But seconds later they saw something else. They remains of the robots they had just destroyed started to move again, as if they were trying to get up once more. Wires shot out of the torn parts of the bodies, trying to reconnect them.

"Regeneration," Trunks called out as he saw what happened. He remembered this from Ne-Me-Sys recordings. "Destroy the bodies. Nothing must remain."

They started to shoot the left-overs, reducing them to complete rubble.

xxxxxxx

At the same time on Earth the current `King´ of the planet was about to made a public speech on radio and all available tv-channels that would go down in history as the worst event since the end of the Androids reign.

The title `King´ was not completely valid in the traditional sense. This man, the former Colonel Hawke of the Royal Army, had no official claim to the throne. He was just the head of the makeshift government that had been put into place after the fall of 17 and 18, to reinstall something of the former human civilization. A civilization that had been originally long abandoned during that point of the Android´s terror.

But the united districts of Earth used to be a parliamentary monarchie and to give the people something that they could hold on to, what was well known to them, he claimed the title for himself. Barely anybody disagreed, nearly all government members saw his reasoning at that time.

What he announced today however spread fear into every single being who listened.

Earth was facing an alien invasion. It sounded unbelivable at first. But the tv-broadcast also showed video material of the giant, nearly planet-sized object, that had entered their system that had been provided to them by Bulma Briefs, that actually she had gotten in turn from Ne-Me-Sys.

But he also assured them that Trunks Briefs, the savior of the world, was facing the problem right now together with a team of special fighters and they had no reason to worry.

Some people still refused to believe it. They told themselves that this had to be a hoax, even when their own king had been the one to announce it.

Many others just refused to get truly worried about all of it, even if they believed it. They were hundred percent convinced that Trunks would be able to deal with it. Since the announcement that he had defeated the Androids many people thought that he was invincible.

Neither of this two mind-sets was exactly healthy.

The rest of the population however reacted as you would expect normal people to. They were afrain, very, but it had not completely taken over yet. Still the panic that Trunks had feared was now close to actually breaking out...

xxxxxxx

_Gete Star_

Trunks was indeed `dealing´ with the situation. He and his Android allies were standing in the middle of the remains of dozens of obliterated robots.

He wasn´t sure how many of them they had destroyed as a whole. It had to be hundreds at least.

He admitted that the fight began to start to take it´s drain on him. These opponents were strong and resilient, even if none of them came close to his own power and it were **many** of them. Even than he wasn´t using his fullpower, it was taking it´s toll on him.

By not they had, going by 16´s sensors, been fighting their way through more than half of the distance to the core. They had demolished at the very least a great percentage of the army of the Gete Star.

Still the fight had not gone without lossed. 15 had been destroyed after he had been cornered by a group of opponents. The combined laser fire of a half dozen cyclopean guards and blasts from two of the humanoid robots.

Seconds later Trunks, 16 and 13 had attacked together and destroyed the same group of robots in turn.

To that came Sixteen´s wound that was not looking good and the large Android had even taken some more damage since then. His entire body was full of at least superficial scorch marks, caused by laser fire and artificial ki.

13 was now looking at what was left of 15. He seemed to take it llightly, in fact he looked actually pleased.

"Perfect," he said.

"What about this is perfect? Another one of your team has just been destroyed," Trunks asked him.

"I will show you something, now that was have a moment for ourselves," Thirteen replied. "I had already installed 14´s power-core and chip, but not activated it yet."

They had just destroyed the last robots inside this corridor and it would take at least a short time until more reinforcements arrived.

"What are you talking about?" Trunks wanted to know.

Then, 13 was doing something. No, actually he was just standing there and something was happening.

Mechanical parts were like automatically being ripped out and were just levitating one and a half meter in the air, before they were absorbed into Thirteen´s body, merged with him.

Seconds later his own form began to change. The seemed to grow bigger by a half head, his muscles were swelling on and became immense and most prominent, his skin turned deep blue and his hair red. His eyes started to glow in a yellow color.

Trunks and 16 watched 13´s transformation without saying a single word.

"You know, Cell might have been calling himself the Ultimate Android, but he was not the only candidate for that role. I was another prototype. But for some strange reason the good doctor decided that this `bug´ had more potential than me. Well, we both know what happened ta him, right Trunks," the Android stated.

With this words he blasted a new group of robots that had just been arriving and destroyed a significant higher number of them than with any of his earlier attacks.

Trunks wasn´t sure if he liked this new development. He wasn´t completely sure how strong 13 had become now. Yes, he was a more powerful ally, but also a more dangerous risk should he decide to turn on them.

Maybe he was only waiting for him to get tired. But he remembered that he himself had also one hidden ace left.

xxxxxxx

Parallel to that, at the outside, even more dramatic events were happening.

The Great Gete Star had just reached Earth´s orbit. Their arrival and following attack had been badly timed, a bit too late, only a bit, but still too late to keep it from reaching the planet.

From the surface it was now visible even with the bare eye.

And even more terrifying, it began to change it´s shape. While until now, it had the spherical form of a usual planet or moon, only made out of metal, now two large tentacle like appendages had started to grow out of it´s main body and were spreading themselves out.

Nearly as if they were trying to wrap themselves around the other planet to suck out it´s life.

The people who had not been panicking so far were doing it now. All around the globe, the entire human race was in a state of shock. Nothing, not even the Androids, could have prepared them for this.

xxx

Two of these people were two young women named Erasa and Videl. The later was the daughter of the old Martial Art Champion called Mister Satan who had in this world a far less famous career and a much shorter one.

In opposite to many other people, her trust in the world savior Trunks was great, but not limitless.

She thought back how she had come to know him and the other golden haired warrior who came before him, named Gohan, in person a long time ago.

_xx_

It had been several years after her father, who had back then just earned the world champion title, had gone to challenge the Androids and was nearly instantly killed by them. The short time he had been kept alive, Videl had realized more and more over the years, had been merely to humiliate him in front of the spectators.

On that day the Androids even left the remaining witnesses alive to tell everyone what happened to their so called `World Champion´.

She remembered how they had him crying and begging for mercy on live tv. How they had even asked him if he had any family for them to `play with´ and he denied it to keep them from going after her.

_"Well, then there will also be nobody to miss you, right?"_ the female called 18 said to him before she blasted the man for everyone, even his daughter, to see.

She spend a long time after that training every day, before she finally went trying to avenge him.

Deep down she had probably known the whole time that this was a foolish idea.

_xx_

The Androids had been less `merciful´ at that day.

She confronted them as they were on one of their rampages in a town close to Central City, a town that had already been lying in ruins from their last visit.

As she arrived they were both slowly walking through the streets while shooting innocent people left and right with their strange powers.

She tried to stop them, but all what she reached was being taken as a hostage as Son Gohan and Trunks arrived. They had just beaten her down, with one hit and continued killing as if nothing had happened.

Then, as their **true** opponents arrived, 17 while holding her in a stranglehold, while 18 threatened to shoot one of their energy beams at her.

_"Now Gohan, why are you not attacking?_ Seventeen had asked him mockingly while he nearly crushed her wrist under his grip. _"There is nothing **important** holding you back, right?" _the Android said._  
_

Gohan and Trunks had become her life saviors at that day. They had managed to get her free. But ultimately they had lost the fight. She had first hand watched them nearly getting beaten to death, for **her** sake.

And then Son Gohan had died a few years later. She had talked once again with the still devastated Trunks and his mother Bulma shortly after she had heard of it.

Yes, she knew he was powerful, but she also realized he was not invincible like some others thought.

xxxxxxx

Deep inside the heart of the Gete Star, Trunks and the two remaining Androids were still fighting.

They were just tearing apart another group of robots that was protecting the core. Behind a line of four cyclopeans was another robot, one of a type they had never seen before. It was a far smaller, more boxy model.

They were just about to finish them of as well, as the last remaining robot did something that completely surprised Trunks.

He shouted out loud:

"No, don´t shoot," he yelled.

Confused, Trunks who had just been preparing a ball of ki, stopped the attack.

"So there is at least one robot here who can think for itself," he stated.

"I will not tell you anything, I will not betray my creator the Great Gete Star to you," the small robot ranted in a still panicked voice.

Trunks hesitated even more. This being here was clearly alive, whatever he was. But on the other hand, so were 17, 18 and Cell.

"You try to kill him, but you won´t succeed. He will rescue the other one and free this planet below us for him," the robot shouted.

Now the half-saiyan was completely confused. What in the world was this guy talking about?

"What the hell do you mean, freeing our planet?" Trunks yelled at him. "You have send your robots to attack a town and kill innocent people. And now you are trying to destroy our world because of it´s life-energy."

Now the small mechanical being returned his look with something that itself could only be equated to confusion.

"That is incorrect," he stated. "We have no intention to attack this world for it´s energy. In fact our energy resources are sufficient for the time to come. We came here to save the other one and stop the beings who are trying to cause harm to him."

Now the half-saiyan truly didn´t understand anything anymore.

In some distance he could already hear the approach of even more robot troops. They would arrive probably within the minute. 13 and 16 had already gotten in position to fight.

By now they were close to the core. It were at worst only a few kilometers more and slowly the Star seemed to be getting desperate. It was sending more and more troops against them that were all being annihilated.

It had even begun to create new forms of makeshift robots of obviously completely provisorical types to stop them. Just a minute ago they had met a large colloss of over three meters height that he, 16 and 13 had blasted apart together.

They were close to victory. But what this being here said did more than confuse him.

He had a strange feeling here. If it could really be...if there was really a chance that this battle had been started by some sort of misunderstanding, as unlikely as it sounded, than maybe he should at least hear him out.

"Who is this `Other One´ you are talking about?" Trunks asked him.

Now the robot was looking at him in something that clearly **was** confusion.

"The Other One is another being...a being similar to the Gete Star itself, but different, that is under threat by enemies on this planet..." the robot explained, "...enemies like **you**. We have come to help it. It has offered us friendship," he stuttered.

"Then why did the Gete Star send two of it´s robots to attack this town?" Trunks asked sharply.

"It didn´t, it is true that it had send two scouts to search the planet for signs of the Other One five global cycles ago, but they had been lost shortly after their arrival. Conclusion is they had been destroyed or captured by enemy forces."

Five days ago, but the attack had happened just yesterday. Looking at the robot, he didn´t thought that he had any sense to lie and why should he about a detail like that. But that was impossible...unless...unless they were standing under the command of someone else...the Other One.

"Tell me, how did the Gete Star even know about the existence of this Other One?" he asked.

"From the message the Other One had send. It informed us about his existence and asked us for help. It told us that he was under attack by powerful organic being that were trying to destroy it. One recording showed a organic unit matching your description destroying part of the Other One. And it also told us that you would try to destroy the Gete Star as well. It had offered us to work together against the enemy."

Now Trunks insides felt as if they had turned into ice. A being like the Gete Star...Ne-Me-Sys. The recording...he remembered blowing up part of the computer´s hardware after he had killed Cell.

He had been fooled from the beginning he realized in this moment. Ne-Me-Sys had asked the Gete Star to come here.

In this moment he heard the sound of a energy attack behind him and it was not one of the wepons the robots were using.

Thirteen, he thought.

Moments later he himself was hit by a blast himself and unprepared, being slammed to the ground.

"Sa I see you have figured it out," 13 stated.

Trunks saw now what the Android had done. The mangled form of 16 was lying about ten meters from him. Half of his skull had been destroyed by the energy blast. And with the damage he had already taken before, he had absolutely no chance to withstand it.

_I am sorry my friend, he though. I let myself get distracted._

"Why are you doing this?" he asked 13, hoping to get something more out of his, as he knew now, enemy.

"What shall I say," the Android said while he was coming closer, preparing a energy blast in his hand, "Master Ne-Me-Sys had found out about the Gete Star some time ago and decided that he truly wanted to integrate it into his systems.

But there was also **you** ta deal with. You were in the way of his possible rule over Earth and over planets. So he thought, why not killing two birds with one stone, sending you against each other, weakening **both** of ya.

We just had to capture these two robots and reprogram them to attack that place and then talk ta you a bit, tell ya the entire story about the other timelines he had discovered. He thought knowing about all the other possible threats out here would keep ya from thinking too much about the here and now and it did. Son you were doing exactly what **he** wanted. Kind of funny isn´t it?"

"You know, for a emotionless killing-machine, you sure talk too much," Trunks commented sarcastically.

"Ah sorry, I will finish you off just now," he replied with equal sarcasm while he was preparing his attack. "Sorry partner, but ya have served your purpose."

"Oh yes? I have also one last thing to say to you."

As he had said this words, from one moment to the other, Trunks ki suddenly raised up by an incredible degree. His power had nearly instantly grown to a level that he had never seen before from him.

For a split second the half-saiyan moved at a speed that even 13´s augmented eyes were not completely able to follow and bridged the distance between them.

"This is the Super Saiyajin 2," he said while he punched his fist through the Android´s chest, right at the point where his power core was located and an explosion ripped out of his back. "Sorry `partner´, but you have miscalculated."

As the now lifeless form fell to the ground, the SSJ blasted it away with another attack.

Trunks himself sank to his knees. He had been holding the SS2 form in reserve since he had actually expected something like this. The mastered normal SSJ spend far less energy, so it had been the better choice for this battle anyway.

But the cheer number of enemies had still gotten to him. Still they had done it. 13´s ambush had failed. There was only his `master´ left to deal with.

"Trunks..." he heard 16´s voice, it sounded nearly as broken as his body, "the Gete Star wants to contact me. The robot was telling the truth. It came here to find another one...like itself."

He saw that wires started to move out of the metal plates of the ground and connected themselves to 16´s head. Then metallic tentacles began to form themselves around his body.

"16," Trunks called out as he saw what was happening to his friend."

But then he was distracted by something else. The wall behind them was being blown apart and a single figure was to see walking through the resulting hole. Someone who had followed them.

The newcomer then destroyed an entire platton of cyclopean robots that was just been arriving with a single attack.

He had never seen the face of this man before, but somehow it seemed familiar to him, as if he ressembled someone he knew. The stranger looked as if he was maybe in his mid twenties. He had black hair and was wearing dark leather clothes.

His eyes however had the same eyes blue color as the other Androids, so he knew instantly **what** he was.

"Now Trunks, how nice to see you again," the man addressed him.

The voice was sounding a bit different, but it was definitily the same he had been hearing in the cave.

"Ne-Me-Sys," he said.

"Yes, in an even higher evolved form then the last time," the AI, now in a Android body, answered. "It seems by now you have realized a small part of my true plans."

"Indeed I have," he said and was standing up to face him, still in his SSJ2 form.

"You now Trunks, your mistake was you have underestimated me," his opponent said as he moved towards him in an incredible speed and punched him into the face with a power he had not felt since Gohan had been fighting Cell in the past.

"You thought I was still a simple machine," Ne-Me-Sys said as he slammed him into the ground with both hands. "But I have become more, far more, I am a `higher being´. You were not able to see that, so you had never a chance. But soon the entire universe will see."

"You are insane," Trunks answered, "just like your creations. Why have you led this thing here?"

The being in front of him actually grinned.

"To add it into my being, to bring myself closer to the true perfection I seek. I will absorb it into my being."

With this he kneelt down and rammed his fist into the ground, beginning to inject highly sophisticated nano machines into the systems of the Getty Star.

"You are the Other One," the sentient robot guard, who had still been listened to their conversation realized, "But this was not what you have told us, you..."

With a simple gesture Ne-Me-Sys blasted the small robot to pieces.

"You know Trunks in nearly every case I have been telling you the absolute truth," he stated, "with the only exception of my own motivations of course. I have outgrown my programming and am my own being now.

You know, this body here had only recently been finished. It was based on the designs of the Number 17 that we both have seen in the other timeline, not the weak one from this world. I have downloaded a copy of my consciousness into it while you were on your way here," he explained.

"Of course I admitt it is still only a pale shadow of the full realized power that of **that** true Ultimate Android that you have watched. I was not able to truly copy that technology in it´s entirety. Somehow I still not have access to the full genius of Doctor Gero. But believe me I will.

It is however still far more than **your** pathetic power," he stated, looking at the SSJ2.

"We will see," Trunks said as he was standing up again.

"You want to challenge me saiyajin? forget it," Ne-Me-Sys punched him in the gut with a strength he could barely believe. He was coughing up blood. It felt as if he had at least a few ribs broken.

"I have calculated every single one of your reactions Trunks, I have calculated every situation into it´s detail. Even at full strength you would have no chance and you are **not** at full strength. You have used up too much energy fighting all these other opponents, just like it was planned."

He knew his opponent was right. He had serious internal injuries and his energy was at it´s limits. He was just somehow holding himself on his legs with pure willpower.

"You have played your role perfectly Trunks," the AI continued. "Now the time of my reign will beginn over your world and others and in that you or beings like you have no place," he said as he slammed him down once more.

The half-saiyan now dropped out of his super saiyajin modes, he was at his end.

He had disappointed them all, he thought, his mother, 16, all the people on Earth. **This** opponent he was not prepared for. But he could not just die here, he thought as he was struggling, trying to stand up again.

The Android AI fired a concentrated energy blast at him, that ripped through his chest, left a wide burning hole in it and burried itself deep into the metal beneath him.

Trunks body sank to the ground. Ne-Me-Sys was looking for a moment at the lifeless form of the half-saiyan who he had just killed. One obstacle less in his way, he thought.

Then he turned around towards his next goal. He would now finish the connection between himself and the Gete Star. He would destroy the primitive AI that was controlling it.

From their contact he knew that it was in the best case half-sentient. Nearly like a naive little child. Such a pathetic being never deserved to be in control of such a magnificient construction anyway.

But as soon as he was about to complete the connection, he was confronted with an unsuspected and very unwelcome surprise.

"You," he said.

xxxxxxx

_Somewhere else, _

_another dimension, t__he Afterlife...Hell_

It was not the usual version of Hell.

This was not the common place where the evil souls were being held for their captivity and punishment.

No, this was a special, a personal hell. It was a section especially created for the single being that was being placed inside it.

The young woman was sitting in the center of an seemingly endless wasteland of grey stone and rock, a completely empty desoleted place…alone…or at least it seemed so on the first look.

She was nobody else than Android 18 and had been send from the regular Hell to this place some time ago. How long exactly? she wasn´t sure. There was no day or night here and the software that Gero had integrated into her implants to measure time-spans wasn´t working in the afterlife either.

But she wasn´t alone, not completely, at least in some sense...

"I have to say, it is really **nice** place where your actions had brought us to," a sarcastic voice said to her that sounded remarkable like Eighteen´s own

"I told you the last time," 18 said to the only other person who was also in this place, "leave me alone."

"I have told you, I can not do that, even if I wanted. I will be with you for all time, whereever you go. That is at least what King Yemma had said to me. This place here had only made me visible to you," the `other young woman´ replied.

The second girl was wearing clothes that were looking nearly the same as her own. Only they were missing the Red Ribbon symbols. They had the same blonde hair, in the same style, their nose, their mouth, the form of their eyes,

in fact they were looking completely **identical**.

"I am not interested in anything you have to say `human´," 18 replied.

"I have told you, my name is Lazuli."

"I don´t care what your name is," she answered, "I **never** did."

"It had once been your name as well," the human girl reminded her.

"Don´t ever remind me of that, I don´t give a damn. I hate you, I only wish that I could had killed you myself."

"You know that is hardly possible. It was Gero who destroyed me to create **you** from my leftovers. He wiped me out to replace me with you. But nothing is ever truly fully gone, at least that is what they told me," she stated.

"So I am always somehow there, at the edge of reality, following you, connected by **our** soul. I follow all the horrible things you do, all your massacres. I am your shadow, I go with you wherever you are. You can never get rid of me. That is at least what they told me, kind of cool, isn´t it?"

"Shut up," 18 shouted and fired a ki blast at her.

Just like before, the attack, that iself was only a manifestion of it´s actual physical existence, went straight through her without causing any damage. This was the afterlife, everything here was ultimately only soul and thought given form.

"I think you should have realized by now that this doesn´t work," the other one replied.

"Oh yes, I remember, you are my karmic punishment or something like that," 18 responded.

Indeed, this was a truly ironic punishment that they fools who were running the afterlife had found for her, since she had been send here from the regular Hell. As far as she knew, Seventeen was in the same state.

Here she had been confronted with whatever had been left of the human she had been created from. Since then the phantom had been constantly pestering her, always blaming her, for what she had become, for the things she had done, the countless people she killed...and always reminding her...about things she didn´t want to thing about.

xxxxxxx

He was slowly regaining consciousness. He was struggling to open his eyes-

_"Trunks,"_ he heard a well known voice speaking to him.

The half-saiyan woke up.

"Sixteen," he said, "You are alive. No, **I** died," he remembered, "again, didn´t I?"

As he was looking around, he realized that he was lying on a desk inside a large bright, completely metallic, room.

"Your analysis is incorrect," his Android friend told him. "I have merged myself with the Great Gete Star. With the help of it´s nano-technology I was able to save you."

* * *

**Authors notes: **

This chapter had become even longer than the third. But I truly wanted to bring in all this stuff that I had here.

Trunks had in fact reached SSJ2 at this point, but he had been holding it back till now to not let 13 and the computer know about it.

Future 18´s (and probably 17´s) `special punishment´ in Hell consists of being constantly confronted with her former human self and be left alone with her for an extended period of time. That was a idea that I had spontaneously some time ago.

It is not explicity stated in the story itself, but it had started at the same time that Cell had been send to Hell in that timeline. So it is also a way to keep him and 17 and 18 as far away from each other as possible.

I wanted to thank everyone who had left reviews for this story or had listed it as favorite. I hope to get more of them in the future.

I especially wanted to thank RAOS, since he had recommended my story in his own. So I mention it as well.

Dragonball OT is a very interesting version of an alternate Mirai timeline. The story goes by the idea that 17 and 18 had been mind-controlled during their rampages and there they later become allies of Trunks.

If you like that theory is a question of your personal opinion, but if you accept it, it is a very interesting read.


	7. Chapter 7: Beyond the brink

**Chapter 7**

He was standing inside of the half-destroyed remains of the giant metallic construction that was still floating in orbit over Earth.

Trunks was alive. But it had been close, very close.

"16, what...what had happened?" Trunks asked. "You...you have merged with the Gete Star...but how?"

He started to move...or at least tried to, but still felt the pain after a few moments.

"Be careful, "the voice of 16 told him, "the nano-bots should have repaired most of the damage to your body by now. But they are not completely finished yet. I wasn´t sure if my attempt to heal you would work out, but I had to try something," the being who had until an hour ago been an Android told him.

"I have injected you with a number of the remaining nano-machines and programmed them to reconstruct your damaged body on a cellular level and I have done my best to restore as much of your energy as possible, without risking a shut-down of my own systems," he added. The reserves of the Gete Star or what was left of it were still limited, he thought.

"If they had done their work as calculated, they should even have improved your physical constitution. To that comes that you have been close to death...very close and since you are a saiyajin, this should increase your power to some degree. Even if, as you have told me, the effect is not that great for a super saiyajin."

Trunks was concentrating on his own state and realized after a few seconds that his actual physical strength seemed indeed to be greater than before. Had he been at full energy, maybe he would be as strong as Gohan had been against Cell, maybe even more so. But sadly he was **not** at full energy right now.

Still it would have to do. Whereever Ne-Me-Sys had gone, he needed to stop him. He needed to go after him.

"Thank you 16," he answered.

He noticed for the first time now the damaged state of the room around him.

"Sixteen," he asked, "what had happened here and where is Ne-Me-Sys?"

"He left, but not before he thought he had got rid of **both** of us," 16 replied.

It had been less when a hour ago that the last fight ended. Nearly the entire time Trunks had been lying here and receiving the `emergency tratment´ that Sixteen had improvised.

He had been more than close to the brink of death or in fact he had already been beyond it.

It was at the same time that the already damaged Gete Star had been completely wrecked.

xxx

_One hour earlier_

After Ne-Me-Sys had failed to take complete control of the **entire** Gete Star, he had retreated for the moment.

But not before doing one last thing.

It was a hour ago that the Super-AI in it´s new Android form was standing in the center of the machine-planet and at the same time his true self, that consisted only of databits and information and pure `will´ that had formed it into a sentient being, was trying to connect itself with the systems of the planet.

What he was attempting was nothing else but to copy his own mind into the central-core of the Star and to replace the other artificial consciousness with his own mind. Not to merge himself with it, like Cooler had done in that other timeline, to completely eradicate it. In opposite to the near dead Arcosian, he would not share control or compromise himself.

He knew for sure that he could do that. For all the technological wonders that it´s construction possessed, the AI of the Gete Star had only developed a rudimentary sentience. So much was clear from the information he had gathered from the other realities and this one.

In cyber-space he was even more superior to it then on the physical plane.

It was only through the contact with Freezer´s brother and his influence on it´s thought processes that it had truly become the world devouring entity it had later been. Until that point it had mostly contained itself by mining-activities on various planets and in deep space. It was Cooler who had shown it that living beings were a more `efficient´ source of energy.

All this however had never happened in this dimension. Here Cooler had been killed completely during the fight with Son Goku.

In fact, the Gete Star had been searching known space to find another intelligence to connect itself with. For all it´s shortcomings, Ne-Me-Sys admitted, the consciousness of the Gete Star had realized what it´s problem was and knew that bonding with another being could help it reach the next step in it´s development.

That was the way he had lured it here, by setting up himself as a bait, as a possible and **very** promising candidate to merge with. And by convincing it that he had been in danger he had urged it to come quickly.

The plan had been nearly perfect. By getting Trunks involved he had caused them to weaken each other, so that he could get rid of all of his enemies and competitors at once.

In this moment he was entering the systems of the Star fully. But this was also the point where things were not longer going as planned. Much to his unpleasant surprise he realized that someone else had already done the same thing.

"You," he said.

"Yes, you come too later," the voice of Android 16 answered him. "I am connected to the Gete Star, it and me are right now merging into one single being."

This wasn´t good, Ne-Me-Sys thought. He had no doubt that he could easily take over and control the original system on it´s own, but combined with the already fully developed mind of Number Sixteen? that was something completely different.

Together they would form a very powerful and dangerous AI, one that might cause problems even for him. Even if he hated to admit that they might eventually be able to become his equal. In a mental battle with them his own thought processes might get seriously damaged and even if he won.

To that came now that the mind of the cursed Android had already merged with the main intelligence, it was nearly impossible to remove him without causing maybe irreversible damage to the system that he was trying to control.

That meant even if he won a confrontation in cyber-space, he would still ultimately loose.

There was only one thing left for him to do...retreat...for the moment.

"Not bad 16," he had said to him, "you have established yourself in this system before I could. Quite remarkable for a simple proto-type as you." The face of his adopted body showed no visible expression as he said this.

"But you should realize that ultimately here you have reached nothing. I already have what I truly wanted."

He looked at his arm that was already, at least physically, connected to the alien-system. The artificial cells of the metallic planet were beginning to merge with his own and taking on each other´s characterictics.

It was his next step to complete perfection.

"The technology of the Gete Star is already mine," he stated, "even if I don´t control it´s core."

As he had said this, he began to levitate off the ground and flew away, right through the giant maze of metallic corridors, to the outside.

He saw that the artificial cells of the star had began to fuse with the ones of his own body. This meant the replication and regeneration abilities of them were already in his possession.

It would have been good to take over the entire AI, to discover **all** the possible secrets of the alien technology. But this was at least a partial victory. And he would make sure that it staid at this state.

He was just exiting the last of the corridors through the large gap in the outer structure that Trunks earlier attack had left.

There, in Earth´s orbit right next to the machine-world, he turned around. He was now floating just between the two planets, the natural and the artificial one.

The pseudo Android gathered energy in his palm. A smile was now forming on the face of his self-made body.

He had actually talked with Trunks beforehand about the risk of blowing up the Gete Star as a whole when it was too close to Earth. They had spoken about how the resulting fallout would be a threat to anything on the surface.

The truth however was that Ne-Me-Sys didn´t care about this at all. While it was hundred percent true what he had stated, he just wanted to keep the saiyajin from destroying it before he had the chance to aquire it´s technology.

Now that his plan had played out however, there was not longer a reason for him to keep it intact. He fired a concentrated ki blast, directly at the central area of the Gete Star.

Any normal planet would have been completely disintegrated by this level of firepower. This metallic construction was a hundred times more resilent, but even that could not withstand it.

The metal-planet was being ripped apart by a giant explosion.

What he didn´t know was that 16 had at this point already connected himself to a deep enough level with the star´s AI, that he could influence the highter functions and what he also wasn´t aware of was that the same Sixteen had already given the command to generate new additional layers of armor around the central core.

He knew how Doctor Gero´s creations usually operated and by now he had gotten a good enough impression of Ne-Me-Sys. 16 had anticipated Ne-Me-Sys coming attack, even if the original AI of the Gete Star did not.

What followed was exactly the scenario that Ne-Me-Sys had predicted to Trunks.

As the Gete Star was blown apart in Earth´s orbit, many of the burning fragments were caught by the gravitation and falling down to the planet.

In a quite ironically twist, the only reason why this didn´t cause a horrendeus loss of life, was that this world was already mostly depopulated.

At least two of the larger pieces that didn´t melt in the atmosphere fell into the ocean, another one on a unpopulated mountain area. Another one however fell unto the remains of a city, that had already been mostly destroyed by the Androids years earlier, and wiped out the few dozen survivors who lived at the old town border.

Somewhere else one of the pieces that had fallen into the sea had caused a tidal wave that flooded an area where had once been a large coast town and another settlement of survivors lived. Other places met similar fates.

All in all however the losses were incredible low for an even that was nothing else than a cosmic disaster, only a few hundred causalities world-wide instead of millions.

The global panic however that Trunks had feared would come, had now fully broken out.

But all this, like it was said, meant absolutely nothing to Ne-Me-Sys.

He was still levitating in orbit and watching like a god over the planet. It was all his now, he thought, now that everybody was removed who even had a chance to resist him. And other worlds would soon follow.

The human race now not longer played a role in the course of history. They were about to be replaced with a superior creation. He would soon decide if he had use for **some** of them or if he would just remove them all together.

But that had time. **Everything** was now his.

What even Ne-Me-Sys sensors didn´t detect was that, behind all the floating debris, the central section of what had been the Great Gete Star, was still mostly intact, thanks to the additional armor that 16 had placed and that the outer layers of the metal-world had absorbed a great part of the impact.

Of all that however Trunks had noticed nothing, since he had at this time been in life saving surgery.

xxx

_Present_

"I understand," Trunks said as he had heard 16´s recapitulation of what had happened. "I have to go after him. Whatever he is planning, it can not be good for the people on Earth. I need to stop him."

"You analyses it correct," Sixteen stated. "Ne-Me-Sys has returned to Earth after he thought both of us dead. He set up this battle for the purpose of getting rid of us. And it had been planned from a long hand. This body for him wehave seen must have taken some time to construct, long before the Gete Star had even entered our part of space.

The most likely conclusion is that his goals are still world domination, just like Doctor Gero´s had been from the beginning."

"I will stop him, whatever he is planning."

"You are still weakened," 16 reminded him.

"I know, but it has to be enough," Trunks replied. "I can not leave the people on Earth at the mercy of that creature. I have sworn to protect them...this is partly my fault...I have been playing directly into his hands."

"You can not blame yourself for this."

"And why not?" the half-saiyan asked angrily..."What about you?" he said after a few moments of hesitation. "You have merged yourself with that alien AI after all. Are you sure?...I mean...Is it somehow influencing you. Are you still yourself?"

"It is okay Trunks," he answered. "There is one thing that you should know about the Gete Star. For all it´s power, the core AI is essentially a child.

It was created by an accident, a single chip created by some civilization out there in an experiment and was thrown away by them as a failure. But then it started to reproduce itself, again and again. In that way all of this here was created, the entire planet," 16 explained.

"At one point however it´s mental and emotional development came to get stuck and wasn´t able to get any further, for many years. But it came to an conclusion, an idea how to overcome this inheritat limit. To find another being, an artificial or even biological one that was compatible, to connect itself with it...to become one. Sadly in the timeline that you had watched Cooler had been the one it had found and he was certainly the wrong choice."

"Yes, definitily the wrong one," Trunks stated. He understood now more about the reasons and background of the actions of the Gete Star.

"And here it has been Ne-Me-Sys who was the one it had chosen for it," he concluded.

"Yes," 16 confirmed.

"It has really a great luck with the candidates it had picked," Trunks remarked sarcastically.

"The Gete Star completely agrees with you," Sixteen replied. "It feels a great amount of anger towards the being that had betrayed and tried to destroy it. Go now, I will follow you to help as soon as I brought myself back into a state where I will be able to," he said.

Trunks nodded. Like Ne-Me-Sys before an hour earlier, he lifted off the ground and flew to the outside. As he exited floating remains, he saw with his own eyes just how much damage the last attack had caused.

Not only was the Gete Star mostly destroyed and only the core section was left, floating in the center of a large field of debris. He also saw large burning areas on the surface of the Earth where parts of them had impacted.

Ne-Me-Sys warning about what could happen in this case shot back into his mind and the pure cruel irony of this situation here.

Bastard, he thought. He would get this goddamned machine for this no matter what it cost him.

Trunks only hoped that his mother was alright. None of the impact places looked anywhere close to West City, but he couldn´t be completely sure.

With the highest speed he could reach he flew down to the planet.

xxxxxxx

_At the same time, down on Earth._

The computer system known now under the abbreviation Ne-Me-Sys, that it had also chosen as it´s name, was essentially existing at many places at once.

There were the three original consoles there it´s consciousness first developed. But it had outgrown them a long time ago. One of them had already been destroyed and replaced by a new and better installation. Beside that was the physical incarnation that it had created for itself, the Android who had as he thought killed Trunks and 16.

All of them were active at the same time. And so, even **while** far above them the battle in space was still going on, the rest of Ne-Me-Sys was already working on the realization of other projects for his great plan.

The next step was just about to be realized.

There was also the factory complex that had for example build the space-ship he had given to Trunks or his time-portal he had based on the designs of Bulma Briefs time-machine that he had greatly improved. That were only a few of the innovations he had developed during the last years.

The reason that he, in opposite to the half-saiyan and his mother or anyone else on the planet, was not suffering much under the resource- and material-shortage was quite simple.

Aside from the fact that he had an entire line of Gero´s infinite energy generators under his control, so his energy supply was actually limitless.

In opposite to Trunks and Bulma he also did not feel obligated to share resources with anybody or respect the interests of anybody else. He felt no need to share what he had with the human population that was still starving in many areas.

In fact he had no problems sending out his agents to loot the decimated cities for materials or to even take it from the survivors directly. That meant as long these survivors were not seeing too much and if they did, that they would at least not be able to talk about it and possibly reveal his existence to Trunks prematurely. So some people who had the bad luck to run into 13 and his group did not survive this meetings.

It didn´t matter, the human population meant nothing to him.

He had told Trunks that he had tried to stop Cell´s development. This was of course a lie. Why should he have done that? The only reason would be if the energy and time had been better invested somewhere else. But `Project Cell´ had still shown much promise, at least back then.

So he had released him and gave the Bio-Android so a chance to prove his worth. Sadly he had failed.

**Now** of course he possessed far superior technologies and power, that made Cell look outdated in comparison. Still he was far from reaching his goal.

Beside all that however he also had the time for a small side-project, one that would very likely turn out quite useful in the future.

Next to the computer-console of the factory that made a part of his being, from there the AI was monitoring the progress, stood another Android whose body had recently been finished.

Like Ne-Me-Sys constructed body however he was not exactly a new model. You could say in some sense he was an improved version of an already existing one.

"As I see it the work is nearly finished," the `new´ Android commented.

_"You are merely stating the obvious,"_ Ne-Me-Sys computer voice responded, _"the modifications on the time-portal will be finished in approximately 6,8 minutes."_

The `portal´, the device that he had used for his excursions into other timelines, was now being upgraded so that it could also serve a slightly different purpose. It was still to open a gate into a different world, but now not a different time but one quite different in nature.

"Okay, but I have to admit, I still don´t quite understand why you are doing this."

_"And since when do I have to explain myself to you?"_ Ne-Me-Sys asked him threatening. Despite that it was a synthetic voice coming from a computer console and seemingly emotionless, the danger behind it for a short moment was clearly to hear.

_"But I will humor you. I plan to return Doctor Gero to the living because I want access to his knowledge and skill."_

"I really meant no disrespect...master," the Android responded. "It is just...you said you were intending to be your own master from now on and now you are planning to restore the old one to life and once again stand behind him?"

_"You misinterpret my intentions,"_ Ne-Me-Sys answered, _"I have still not access to the full potential of the technology that I have required from the other timelines. You have seen the power that the alternate Number 17 and 18 have reached. My new body is based on their design, but it is still just a fraction of their strength,"_ he explained.

_"It is still incomplete...there is still something missing. I need his expertise to find out what. When Doctor Gero returns to life however he will soon find out that the conditions of our working relationship have changed. If he is cooperative, I will offer him an equal partnership, if not he will find his place **beneath** me."_

"I see," the Android stated.

_"He can be my partner or he can be my servant. It is his choice."_

In front of them the now modified portal was activated and it opened a gate between the dimensions.

Neither of them knew that something else would interfere.

xxxxxxx

_Somewhere else_

On a wide valley with no other people in a circle of a hundred miles, a single lonely being was standing and using his own super-heightened senses to follow the events.

It was a figure dressed in a black cloak and his face was covered by a dark grey mask, that made it impossible to truly identify his features.

He was a stranger on this world and in fact in this universe and had arrived at this place several days ago. Since then he had been watching the developments that had led to the current situation.

He found it greatly interesting.

This timeline here reminded him much of the world where he originally came from, in more than one sense. But that was not what had awoken his interest, at least not only.

No, it were in first line two certain individuals. At the one side it was this half-saiyan named Trunks and on the other the sentient AI that had developed itself out of Doctor Gero´s computer network.

Both of them had gained access to the ability to travel into other timelines, in a bit different ways. Ultimately they both got it from the local version of his mother Bulma, directly and indirectly, he thought.

Both of them had gained great power and the potential for even far more. The only question was which one of them would win their coming confrontation. They **both** could be useful for his goals.

Like them he was a wanderer between the dimensions and times. But at the same time he was also far more than that, at least he was now.

So he would wait and then concentrate his efforts on the winner. First however he would do something to make the contest even more interesting.

He would see how both candidates would react when something unforeseen happened, something that threw a wredge into their plans. Their ability to adept, to deal with situations that they had no time to prepare for, was one of the indicators of their worth. And he was about to create one.

"Yes I see, very good," he said loud. "I am curious which one of you will come out on top." His voice sounded hollow and slightly distorted through the mask he was wearing. "But first..."

He unleashed his own ki that became visible as what at first seemed like a light red glowing, but turned into shades of dark blue and green after split seconds.

It was a ki that could not be detected by the beings on this planet, even when this world should be trembling under it´s power and it should be felt even in billions of light-years distance.

Maybe the Kaios and the Kaioshin would be able to sense his presence from their worlds far away in the universe. But it didn´t really matter to him. This pathetic creatures did not impress him in the slightest. Shall they knew about the new dangerous enemy that had arrived in their reality. Should they shiver in fear.

His still growing ki was now rising above the entire area and it manifested itself in a form that ressembled two giant bright green colored snakes that seemed to be growing out of his outstretched arms and crossing their paths up in the sky.

The large level of energy that he had unleashed however served a very special purpose. His outbreak of ki was directed, at one specific target.

He had detected Ne-Me-Sys attempt to create a opening between the dimensions. But he had decided to interfere.

Over the years of his existence as what he was now, he had learned to use both his ki and his other abilities for far more than just simple attacks.

His ki was heading for the opening in time and space that Ne-Me-Sys portal had created and clashed into and connected itself with it. Just like he had intended, his own manipulated ki and the already existing gateway interacted and influenced each other, widened it...until the portal broke wide open.

"Now we will see," he said.

xxxxxxx

_The Afterlife...Hell_

"Do you know something," 18 told her now, "why don´t you just leave me alone?" As she said this she sat herself down on the ground, somewhere in the middle of the endless stone wasteland. "What do you even want from me?" she called out. "If you hate so much what Gero had turned you into, why don´t you just go away? We **both** would be better off."

Something about the Android´s demeanor had changed for a short moment. Instead of the casual and seemingly superior attitute she was usually displaying, she looked more...vulnerable, depressed, maybe even...defeated.

It was clear that the many months she had spend here by now...only together with this...this phantom of her former self...hearing her speak, listening to **all** she had to say...had started to getting to her somehow.

But it lasted only for a short moment. A few seconds later the old arrogance was already back in her expression.

Lazuli however of course knew. They were not only mentally connected, technically they were the same being.

In opposite to 18 however, her once original human self was not much more than a shadow, a memory, even here in the afterlife. Yes, phantoms in the truest sense of the word.

xxx

Lazuli and Lapis were an anomaly, even for the beings who were ruling this place. They and 17 and 18 were at the same time the same beings and they were not.

It was not simply amnesia, something like that was known in the afterlife. Doctor Gero had completely destroyed their minds, while at the same time he changed their bodies on a cellular level and then reconstructered and recreated them by his own design.

He had violated so many simple laws of nature as he had created these two that one could barely believe it. They had actually been clinically dead for some time during the procedure. Then he had reanimated them after a few minutes.

But only to bring them back into bodies whose biochemical and mental processes he had already changed step by step at that point. Lapis and Lazuli had died by his hand only to make room for 17 and 18.

With this act he had at one side denied them access to the afterlife and on the other made it impossible for them to exist as their old identities.

But he was not able to completely destroy the essence of what they had once been. Not that he had actually intended that. He did not even care. For him they had only been raw materials for his projects.

So they both ended up trapped in a eternal limbo. As long as 17 and 18 lived, they were not truly dead, but even now, they could not truly fully exist in the other-world. They could only manifest themselves as incorporal non-stable entities and even that only for a limited time.

By the rules of the afterlife every soul was brought in by the stand it had at the point of it´s death. That meant in their case as Seventeen and Eighteen, just as they had been when they were killed.

But Lapis and Lazuli could not be blamed for the actions of their changed selves. The two Androids had for the most part made their own choices, but with their already altered characters and ways of thinking. They were in no way responsible for that.

Sending what was left of their old personalities to Hell along with their Android selves would be unfair and a injustice to two innocents. But doing nothing would condemn even these innocents to an eternal half-existence.

On the other side they could not simply wipe out 17 and 18 and restore Lapis and Lazuli to their full beings. Aside from the simple fact that this would be beyond even their power, as the latest state, by the rules of the afterlife, the Androids were the rightful owners of these souls, even if they were not really the only ones.

That was the dilemma that King Yemma and the other deities who were controlling the afterlife were confronted with when dealing with this two. The thought alone sometimes caused him to give Gero extra rounds in Hell for what he had done.

Idiots like him were screwing with the very nature of other living beings and **he** was the one who had to sort out the consequences, typical, Yemma thought.

It was now nearly two years ago that he had come to another idea how to deal with this situation. If he was honest, it was not truly promising, but at least a small chance...and better than nothing.

The `shadows´ of Lazuli and Lapis however had willingly agreed to it...nearly enthuastically actually. He had send both of them to a special place together with their counterparts that he had created as their `private hell´. This two obviously had much to say to their other selves...and certainly not very friendly things.

He had still slight hope. Maybe after being confronted with the human beings they had once been for a few years would somehow be enough to get them to overthing their own actions. And maybe after some more decades...or maybe centuries...of rehabilitation, 17 and 18 would be able to change their ways.

Then they could be merged with the leftovers of their human selves.

If he was honest with himself, he wasn´t even sure if there was an actual chance for this happening.

But as he said, he simply hoped for the best.

What he didn´t knew yet was that in a few moments an event would happening that would throw also his plans over, just like the ones of certain other beings on Earth, as incredible enrgies were being built up and suddenly the gates of the underworld broke open.

xxx

Lazuli had of course seen the momentarely change in the Android and after spending all this time trying to get to her somehow, it was deeply satisfying.

But on the other side that what she had said just plainly pissed her off.

"Leave? Have you still not figured this out. I can not leave. Whenever I am not here I drift somewhere between life nad nothingness thanks to that bastard did to us," she yelled at 18. "And I have no chance to ever end this as long as you don´t stop being a bitch."

The Android turned back around to her.

"Well, then I guess your chances are really bad," she said to her with a grin.

She was already thinking about how to respond to the next comment this pathetic human would made.

In the next second however something happened that neither of them would have expected. A shock went through the entire room, the ground was shaking beneath their feet. Then somehow, in a way that could barely be described, the entire place around them seemed to be falling apart.

A few moments later 18 found herself lying on the ground. While she was slowly standing up, she was looking at herself. Her body was looking like always, but somehow it felt different.

She heard a sound next to her and turned around. To her complete surprise she saw her brother kneeling next to her who she had not seen since she was send to...that place.

"Seventeen?"

"Yeah, it is good to see you Eighteen," he replied. Like herself he had been lying in some meter distance and was just standing up.

"But how?" For the first time both of them were actually looking around.

They were standing somewhere at the outskirts of a town, a human town. It looked quite different...obviously since it had completely been repaired since the last time...but it looked remarkable like the place where they had been killed.

They were on Earth, in the world of the living...once again.

"17...we...are we?"

"Yes, we are back," he replied with a grin.

xxxxxxx

At the same moment Trunks, who had been still flying over the planet, heading to the place from where they had started into space since he knew there was one of Ne-Me-Sys intallations, was getting another very shocking surprise. Just like so many other people today.

Dozens, maybe even hundreds of energy signatures were suddenly appearing all over the planet. Some of them were very high.

He had no doubt that the super-computer was responsible for this as well. But how and why? he wasn´t sure.

xxx

It was at the same time that Ne-Me-Sys as well realized that his attempt to open a gate to the afterlife had gone wrong. But just like him, he didn´t knew the reason. All what he could find out was that a large burst of energy had interfered with it, but he couldn´t make out the source.

xxx

Trunks was now heading to one of the largest energy signatures and also one of the ones closest to him.

As he arrived he confirmed with his own eyes what he already secretly suspected as he felt the energy.

Before him stood a creature that had a remarkable similarity with the interstellar tyrant Freezer. He knew instantly who this had to be.

"Cooler I presume," he said.

* * *

**Authors notes:** The cloaked and masked figure that had appeared here will play a great role in the later chapters.

I wanted once agin to thank the readers who had reviewed the last chapter. That are in this case Raos and

The chapter had taken a bit longer than I had expected. I had a hold up of a few days.

Like chapter 5 had been, this one is mostly the build up for the next one. So the outcome will come in chapter 8, that will probably be the conclussion of this arc.


	8. Chapter 8: Invasion of the Dead

**Chapter 8  
**

Now a new nightmare had come over the people on Earth.

Trunks was standing in front of the as he knew perfectly well, long dead alien. There was only one explanation. Somehow he had escaped from the afterlife...from Hell...and he was not the only one. There was no telling how many of them were terrorizing the planet right now.

"Yes indeed, I am Cooler," the alien responded, "first born son of the Cold family and one of the three heads of the Planet Trade Organization and you are, if I see that right, a saiyan."

"That is correct," Trunks told him casually, "I am."

"I know for sure that there were only a handful of you left, since my brother had wiped out the most of your race. So few actually that you can count them on one hand. Tell me, who was your father?" the alien asked him with a wicked smile. "It wasn´t Goku wasn´t it?"

"This is hardly even your business, but no he was not," Trunks answered. "If you have to know, my father was Vegeta."

"Ah, the prince himself. Now, I should actually be glad. You know, my brother was a fool, but he was actually right in one point. The saiyans had to be destroyed. Your race is just too dangerous to be kept alive," he stated.

"I know I am technically dead. So it is good possible that this here will not really benefit me at all. But since you are only a single lousy saiyan it can not hurt to just kill you right? I mean it is not as if it is a great effort. You know, like crushing an insect."

"Oh really?" Trunks replied. He instantly transformed into a SSJ.

Cooler´s attack was so fast that a normal human or even a trained ki user would not even see the movement. But for him it was practically in slow-motion.

He caught his coming fist in the movement, before the alien even fully realized what had happened.

As Cooler noticed now who or rather what was standing before him, the same sort of being that had originally killed him, his expression turned into one of shock. Nearly unconsciously, he made one step backwards.

"Still thinking that killing me is easy?" the half-saiyan asked him.

Freezer´s brother wasted not a single moment and changed into his fifth form, that beside him no other member of his family had ever reached. But he knew that even that would probably not be enough, since he had been defeated in this form before. All that while the saiyan was still holding his hand in an iron like grip.

"You...I thought there is only supposed to be one super saiyajin every 1000 years," he stammered, trying to distract his opponent somehow.

"There you see what you get for trusting in legends," Trunks commented.

Actually Cooler never gave anything on the legend of the SSJ or anything related to it. He just said the first thing that came to his mind to keep his opponent talking to win some time, in the hope that he could use some distraction or something.

This super-saiyajin he had realized instantly, was even far stronger than the one he had met in the past. It was clear that he had not the slightest chance at all.

The half-saiyan however didn´t waste any time either and ascended right away to level 2. His opponent had already been completely outmatched before, but now he looked only like an mere insect next to him.

It was a pure intimidation tactic. He didn´t have the time to waste by defeating this foe and one of the quickest ways was to let your opponent know hundred percently sure that they are defeated before the fight had even started.

"Wait," Cooler said now desperately, "don´t..."

"Don´t what," Trunks asked, "don´t kill you? As I remember you were trying to kill me just a few moments ago."

"I...I can help you," the other one offered. "I am not the only one who has returned to life. Some of them won´t give a thought and just attack anyone on sight. Believe me, I know them. I can help you to stop them," he offered. "No matter how strong you are, you can not stop all of them at once. I may be weaker than you, but I am still far stronger than most of them."

The half-saiyan hesitated for a moment. It sounded ridiculous.

But still he started to think. Despite everything, Cooler had a point.

In the distance he could feel ki signatures vanish, being extinquished, with other words people were dieing.

Trunks crinched. Once again the Earth had been turned into a battlefield and he had failed to prevent it. He had to stop this, as quickly as possible...and then he had to deal with the true threat.

He was sure that somehow Ne-Me-Sys was responsible for this here as well. The only thing that he didn´t understood was why. This could not just be a simple distraction.

Yes, Cooler had indeed a point.

"**Why** would you help me?" he asked.

"Why? Just to stay in this world a little bit longer of course," he answered. "These humans mean nothing to me. But inopposite to some others I also don´t go out of my way to kill them for no reason. It is not as if I were in any position to sell this planet right now."

Trunks pressed his teeth together at the last comment. But he had already known what the PTO did for living.

It was in this moment that he noticed another source of ki. It felt as if the energy of several different people were concentrated at a single point. But he knew better, it was only a single being. He would recognize it anywhere, Cell.

Trunks made his decision.

xxxxxxx

Many miles away, in another part of the world, two other beings who had recently been returned to life were dealing with their new situation.

"Now 18, how about we go and have some fun?" 17 asked her.

"But what about Trunks?" she questioned. "You have seen how strong he had become the last time and it had been a few years since then and he will most likely have gotten even stronger, while we were stuck in Hell the whole time."

"Oh, don´t worry about big bad Trunks," her brother stated. "You know during our time in Hell, while you were only moping around, I did actually something useful and learned how to sense energy. It is not that hard, we have seen Gohan and Trunks do it a hundred times after all. But for some reason we have never bothered to pick it up ourselves."

"That may have something to do with the fact that over the time we have just grown too arrogant and convenient to even improve ourselves the slightest bit," 18 stated sarcastically.

It was something she had realized a long time ago. They had just been lazing on the knowledge that they were the strongest, while constantly toying with their enemies and allowing them to get stronger in the process.

"You know something Sis? You might be right with that one," 17 responded. "We had been slagging off during the last years. Anyway, the situation is quite different now," he said.

"How is it different?" 18 asked incredulous. "Trunks still has improved a lot and we have not at all."

"You mean **if** Trunks even manages to find us in the first place?" he remarked. "Believe me, he will have all hands full right now. In case you haven´t noticed, we are not the only ones who had escaped from Hell. And besides, what is he going to do to us, kill us? We are already dead. The worst thing that can happen is that we land back where we already were before. To be honest, whatever has brought us back to life will probably not last anyway. So why don´t we just make the best out of the time we have here?"

"You don´t know that for sure," she responded. "Maybe we will stay here if nobody manages to kill us again."

"And then what?" he asked her, "Would you run away whenever you hear that Trunks is in the area? Would you live a life in hiding like some pathetic **human**?" he said. The distaste in his voice as he said the last word was clearly to hear.

"I would rather go all out on this planet now and return to Hell afterwards. Or has your meeting with **her** got to you 18?" he asked her tauntingly. Seventeen had just admitted, even though indirectly, that he had been in the same situation like her since they had been send to their `personal hells´.

"Of course not," she replied, now with open anger.

"I see. Then let us beginn," he told her.

Somewhere deep down, she still had an uneasy feeling about all this. But yes, her brother was probably right. By all they knew their stay at this world was limited anyway. Was this really a reason to sink so low to go into hiding, live with your head down...like some human? she thought.

In some distance to them they heard an explosion.

"Well, it seems that someone else has already started to use our playground," 17 said, grinning once again.

xxxxxxx

Parallel to all that, the living computer system Ne-Me-Sys was still monitoring the events all around the globe.

To say that he wasn´t pleased would be an understatement. Once again some freak incident that he couldn´t have foreseen had thrown a wredge into his plans.

But at least it wasn´t all lost. The target he was originally looking for had also been transported to this world.

_"I have located Doctor Gero. Go, find him, bring him to me,"_ the computer´s voice ordered a few seconds later.

"As you wish," the Android who was assisting him answered.

"One moment," Ne-Me-Sys Android incarnation, who was standing beside them, spoke up. "We have an even greater problem. I have found out that Trunks is still alive."

"How is that possible?" the Android asked. "You have told me yourself that you have shot him through the heart and checked his vitals afterwards. Maybe he just came back...like Doctor Gero and the other sigatures you have detected."

"No, because he was already there before I had activated the portal," the physical body of Ne-Me-Sys answered.

"I see," the Android grinned.

"Try to stay out of his way for now. We will deal with him later when the time is right. But bring me Doctor Gero...and 17 and 18 would be good as well if you can. I have detected that they also have returned. This is at least one practical side-effect of this accident. That means I won´t have to remove them from the afterlife as well later. The work on the other prototypes is nearly finished. Soon my friend we will be invincible."

"Of course," he replied with a grin. "Something else?" the Android questioned. "As I see you have started working on the time-portal again?"

"You are very observant. I have devised an additional contingency plan. Should things go wrong in this timeline, I will still have another one," Ne-Me-Sys stated. "But the more I analyze the possibilities, the more I think this plan might actually show greater promise than the original one."

The time-portal was being activated once more...and Ne-Me-Sys, in his Android form, stepped through.

xxxxxxx

They were indeed not the only ones who had returned from the afterlife. Through the anomaly several former soldiers of Freezer´s invasion force had been released and also two of the warriors who had served under Cooler as **he** came to Earth. To that came a couple of the so called saibamen, that had been used as cannonfodder by Vegeta and Nappa years ago in their attempt to conquer the planet.

At leat it seemed to be a limited breach in the dimensions. So far only opponents came back who had died on Earth and even from them not all. Freezer himself for example and his father Cold didn´t seem to be under them nor did several other villians who had appeared in the past.

Who was here and who not seemed to be a question depending mostly from coincidence.

Some of them had already started to attack the human population. This were in first line the saibamen who had been bred from the beginning as tools and living weapons and some of the former ground soldiers, doing what they were trained for. That meant wiping out the native people and taking over.

This time however not at the word of their masters, but just because they hoped to loot the place and keep some of the valuables for themselves.

But it didn´t last long, for any of the various groups. Just a few minutes after they had started, they were being attacked themselves, at at least two different locations.

xxx

At one place the two saibamen who were rampaging through a town and attacking random citizens that were not able to go into hiding fast enough, were shot by ki blasts from Trunks and Cooler and instantly vaporized.

Not so far away from them, scattered over a large area, were a number of soldiers who had been under the command of the Cold family. Without any direction fron their leaders and having been trapped in Hell for a long time, some of them had decided to just run amok and attack and murder citizens, while a few others were standing back and waiting for more precious targets, something that actually could fight back and give them a challenge.

"Lord Cooler," one of them called out as he recognized his former commander.

"Listen, I and the strongest local warrior have come to an agreement."

That was also a way to put it, Trunks commented silently.

"We are cooperating for now. Find all of your former comrades who have decided to attack this place and stop them. IIf they refuse, send them back where we just came from," the alien lord declared.

"Yes Lord Cooler," the two soldiers answered.

"You see...Trunks, that was your name wasn´t it?...I am keeping my word."

"We will see," the saiyan replied.

After only a few minutes it was over. The few former PTO fighters who had refused to stand down had been killed.

But this was not the only place that was attacked by escaped Hell residents and not all were former subordinates of the Cold family...some of them where far more dangerous.

xxxxxxx

_A few dozen miles away_

One of Freezer´s former ground soldiers, who had been part of his invasion force but had never got to do anything, had just for some reason blown up an entire town district with who knows how many people.

Another one was using fleeing citizens for target-practice.

Standing in some distance behind them, Doctor Gero was just shaking his head. Not that it wasn´t a good thing to see this worthless humans exterminated. It seemed even with 17 and 18 running amok for decades, there were still some of them left. That was exactly the point about vermin, that it was hard to exterminate, he thought.

But their first priority now should have been how exactly they had been returned to life and how to make sure that their stay would be permanent. With these thugs however, such simple logic would probably be pointless.

In opposite to them however he knew what he was doing. He would first return to the remains of his lab to contact the computer that was hopefully still functional.

But before he could plan anything more concret, his thoughts were being interrupted as both of the soldiers in front of him were being blasted away.

"Now, who do we have here?" Gero heard a voice addressing him...a voice he knew all too well. "This seems truly to be a very special day for us."

"17," he exclaimed.

"Yes, how nice to see you again Doctor," the Android replied. He and 18 were standing on the roof of one of the buildings close by.

xxxxxxx

Another one who had been returned to life however was nobody else than Cell. For the Bio-Android it was nothing else but a strike of luck.

Just like 17 he realized that his stay here in this world might probably not for long, but at least he finally might have the chance to reach his perfection, even if it was in death.

And if he was truly lucky, he could maybe even have his revenge on that blasted saiyan Trunks and take with with him to the afterlife. Yes, that would be a sweet thought.

But for now he was on the look for 17 and 18. The saiyan would come later.

Seventeen and Eighteen, by what he knew about them they were very likely at one of the places that were being attacked...as the reason for the attack. But which one? There were several towns being hit and even he couldn´t detect them.

He guessed he would just have to take a pick. So he decided to head for one of the places where the hardest fighting seemed to be going on.

xxx

As the Bio-Android had arrived a few minutes later at the location he had chosen, he was severly disappointed.

The Android twins were nowhere to see. Instead there were a number of fighters who looked like minions of the Cold family blasting each other apart.

But there was one good thing about his bad hand here. The leader of the group who was obviously winning and either rounding the others up or just killing them, was quite powerful. Yes indeed.

Even if he was not 17 or 18, he would at least give him a good deal of energy if he absorbed him. That would make it much more easily for him to deal with the Androids when he had finally found them.

One snack for on the way, Cell thought and a cruel smile formed on his face. The alien had his back turned to him, good.

He got ready to ambush his unsuspecting prey...or at least he thought so. In the moment he wanted to charge forward to absorb Cooler´s energy, he felt his own arm being grabbed by an incredible strong hand. As he turned around he recognized Trunks.

"You, damn it," he called out.

"Congratulations Cell, you have walked right into our trap. I have felt you close by and I knew you would not resist such a rich source of energy. All I had to do was hide my own ki and wait for you to appear. You have done the same thing often enough if I remember right."

"No, let go of me." the Bio-Android struggled to get free.

In this moment Cell was hit by a powerful ki blast from Trunks that hit him right into the chest and send him flying backwards.

"You will pay for this," he exclaimed as he had finally caught himself in the air.

But the half-saiyan had only done this to being him into the position he wanted him in. In this moment Trunks entered his SSJ2 stage and send a Burning Attack at him.

"Oh no, not again," Cell shouted as he was frontally hit and complete eradicated.

"Good job," Cooler commented, "but the next time I will not be the bait." He was looking around. "This is a nice planet by the way, even if the locals are a bit on the weak side. I can understand that you want to protect it. Who knows, if things were different, I would maybe have made it my new personal residence. I might have even decided to let most of these humans live," he stated casually. "I am not like my brother in that regard, you know. Always feeling the need to destroy everything." He started to chuckle lightly.

"If you say so," Trunks responded in a grim tone.

Suddenly Cooler himself was struck in the back by a energy blast that slammed him to the ground. There had been no ki that they had been able to detect, it was a complete surprise, a Android, he thought.

"Look, I have finally found you again Trunks," a voice addressed him.

"Lord Cooler," one of the two alien soldiers called out as he saw what had happened.

He and his comrade just moved to attack...but they were nearly instantly vaporized by just two moves of the finger from the assaillant.

It was the same being he had been working with just a few hours before. But despite their entire situation it was still something of a surprise to see **him** here.

"13," he said," as I see you have come back as well."

"Oh really?" the Android replied. He moved and landed a hard kick on Trunks shoulder.

To his complete surprise he realized that 13 was moving in at least the same speed as he did. What in the world had happened? This was not longer the same Android from a few hours before.

Thirteen noticed his astonishment.

"You see Trunks, I am not dead," he told him. "When you had destroyed my body, Master Ne-Me-Sys was so gracious to download my consciousness into this new one, similar to how you have seen it in the other timeline.

Like his own, it is partly based on **that** Android 17´s design...In short I am much more powerful now."

"Damn," Trunks growled, he just could not believe this.

He tried to land a punch, but 13 evaded it. The Android was keeping up with him even in his SSJ2 form.

"You," Cooler growled as he just came back up again and fired two ki blasts at him, which Thirteen however easily shrugged off and paid no further attention to him.

"And by the way, 17 and 18 are back as well. It was in fact not even intended. Actually Ne-me-Sys wanted for now only to bring Doctor Gero back, but somehow the time-portal malfunctioned and this here," he looked around, "it the result."

Trunks tried his best to hide the dread he felt at this revelation.

"They should not be far away from the place where you had originally killed them right now. After all they have just come back. Ne-Me-Sys has plans for this two, you know. I am not the only `new prototype´ that he has constructed. His new copies of 17 and 18 should be ready for activation very soon...just like in the other timeline, ya remember?"

Now Trunks froze in absolute horror. Of all the things he had seen in the recordings of the past timeline, the Super Androids were clearly under the ones he feared the most. Should they really come into existence here, he knew he had absolutely no chance.

"And as original creations of the Great Doctor Gero, they will even be far stronger than **my** current form. With them under Ne-Me-Sys control, we will be invincible. Very soon you will have the pleasure to be crushed like a bug. But my master has actually send me to retrieve Doctor Gero for him, not to play around with you. So you have to excuse me," 13 said.

Without saying another word or doing anything else, but laughing, the Android rose up into the air and flew away.

"What in the world was this about?" Trunks asked loud. Why had 13 told him all that? Why had he even confronted him like this? If he truly wanted Doctor Gero or even 17 and 18, he could have simple grabbed them and he would have have possibly never even found out.

It didn´t even matter. Ne-Me-Sys was the one who was the real threat, especially if what 13 had told him was true. He was his true target, but if he was after Gero and the Androids, then it was better if he was getting neither of them.

Trunks knew he needed to end this here quickly and then stop the creature before he could finish this new models...**if** they truly existed.

xxxxxxx

"Seventeen, Eighteen, wait, listen to me," Doctor Gero addressed them.

"Yes doctor, we are listening. What do you have to tell us?" 17 said to him. He and 18 who was standing beside him were exchanging a look and beginning to chuckle.

"Don´t do anything hasty. We can work together. I...I had much time to think while I was in Hell, where I had gone wrong."

"This is very interesting, right 18?" the male Android responded.

"You say it 17" she said, "...So tell me, to what `groundbreaking´ conclusion did you came?" she asked the scientist.

"...I was too controlling. I should have given you more room to make your own decisions." He was clearly nervous and with his back to the wall.

"You hear that?...**Now** he realizes this," 18 remarked sarcastically. They both broke out into halling laughter now.

"It only took him 20 years," 17 stated.

"I can make you more powerful," Gero exclaimed now. "...far more. You and 18...you were supposed to be my greatest creations...even more than Project Cell would have been." He remembered their last meeting where they had found the blueprints, the one that had ended in his own demise.

"But I never came to fully achieve what I had planned for you," he lied. In truth he had given up his plans after he realized that he couldn´t control them. "You know how powerful you already are now, when only half my work is finished. Imagine what you will be if I have finally perfected you. We can be partners, real allies."

For a few moments something in 17´s expression changed. He looked as if he actually taking it into consideration.

"That sounds all...really interesting," he said. "There is only one problem...We would never, under no circumstances, willingly work with you."

"And besides," 18 added, "we all know that it would only take a short time till things were back exactly like they had been before, with you trying to exploit us for your own end."

Both of them were preparing an energy attack in their hands.

xxxxxxx

Trunks was now flying over the area that 13 had been talking about a few minutes earlier. It was here where he had killed Seventeen and Eighteen.

Cooler was a close distance behind him. He didn´t really care about this planet, but all what had happened so far had made him curious. And who knew, if he helped out here, it might gain him a few points with King Yemma.

In some distance they could see even more fires burning and in between still a few explosions. Trunks wasn´t sure if he could defeat Ne-Me-Sys or even the new form of 13 right now. But he knew he had to do whatever he could.

After a few more minutes he saw them...his targets. 17 and 18, looking just like when they had been still alive and some meters before them was none other than Doctor Gero. Just like them, he would recognize the insane scientist anytime.

He arrived just in time to see him getting blown away by the Androids...again. Some things just never changed, he thought.

"Seventeen, Eighteen, you are making a mistake. You don´t know the chance that you are missing, no," he heard Gero shouting before the blasts hit him and turned him to ashes.

Good, Trunks thought now grimly, one problem less.

He landed right in front of them.

"Trunks," 18 said in a nearly toneless voice as soon as she recognized him.

Both the saiyajin and the pair of Androids were starring at each other for several seconds.

This were them, he saw it nearly instantly, the Seventeen and Eighteen he had known, they were not like the versions he had met in the past. Everything came back to him all over again, the towns they had attacked, the Z-fighters, all these people they had murdered, Gohan.

A part of him, a great part actually, wanted to attack them right on the spot, to kill them all over again. But for several reasons, he knew this was a bad idea.

"I see you have found us once again," 17 stated. "Strange, I had expected you to take at least a few hours more."

"I have been, you could say, tipped off that you two are back," Trunks responded.

The Androids just took in this small bit of information. Both of them were clearly nervous, but they hid it well. The last time they met, the half-saiyan had killed them and they knew he would have only gotten stronger in the time that had past.

Unknown to them however, Trunks own thoughts were pretty much the same. How strong are they right now? he asked himself.

He had spent the last five years believing that he had become stronger than the Androids. It was not until recently that he realized how badly mistaken he had been. The viewing of Ne-Me-Sys recording had completely shattered this conviction.

The truth was 17 and 18 had only ever realized a small part of their full potential. Gero´s last words from a few seconds ago confirmed this once again.

If what 13 said Ne-Me-Sys was planning was true, if he had already activated the sencondary bodies he was creating and they were working like the ones in the other timeline, then this two might have already eclipsed him in strength.

These were the two beings who had made his life a living hell since he had been a small child...his living nightmares...and he had not the slightest idea where they were standing in power compared to him right now.

As much as Trunks hated to admit it, he was terrified.

xxxxxxx

_Somewhere else...hundreds of miles away_

Android 16 was levitating above the area. It was only a short time ago that this new mechanical body, constructed by the core of the Great Gete Star had been finished.

Beneath himself, his sensors detected a large underground complex and the artificial energy signature of the computer-console controlling it. Just as he had expected to find it.

As Ne-Me-Sys had invaded the core AI of the Gete Star, 16 had been able to get a few glympses into his mind as well. Among the most important information that he was able to extract was the exact location of his secret installations over the planet.

He and Trunks already knew about the factory complex that had created the space-ship they had used the Gete Star. But by the computer´s own admission, there were at least two more.

16 was now right above one of this locations. He knew Ne-Me-Sys powerful Android incarnation was not here, neither were any other **really** powerful guards to defend it, only a few automatic defenses, that however could never stop a fighter of SSJ power or higher.

It´s security was more depending on the secrecy of it´s location than than it´s protection. Still he would have expected Ne-Me-Sys to at least try to defend it. But right now, it didn´t matter.

Sixteen gathered his energy and send a powerful blast down to the ground. Just like he had aimed for it hit the center of the facility. The computer, a part of Ne-Me-Sys and everything around it vanished in a large explosion.

Sixteen still wondered why Ne-Me-Sys had not bothered to send his Android self to defend it. He knew that he wasn´t fighting Trunks yet, who was still dealing with the resurrected enemies.

The only explanation was that he was busy with something else. Whatever it was, 16 would first destroy the other installation he had located and then go to help Trunks in a more direct way.

xxxxxxx

"Now, are you here to kill us again Trunks?" 17 said with some fake confidence. "That won´t achieve much. As you see, we are already dead."

In truth, he had absolutely no wish to return to the afterlife so quickly. Much to his dismay he had found them far faster when even his most negative expectations had been. So far he and 18 had actually kept a low profile compared to most of the others.

By every bit of logic, Trunks should have been busy taking out all that fools who had decided to make a spectacle out of themselves by ransacking the planet and blowing up everything in their sight and not, for some blasted reason, be landing here, right in front of them.

At least they had the chance to get Doctor Gero once again.

Trunks, on the other side had quite similar thoughts.

`Killing you, you don´t know how much I would like to do exactly that´, he said silently to himself. But he knew perfectly well that killing them right now could actually make make things even worse.

By what he knew about the Super-Android process, it worked even between the dimensions...between the world of the living and the afterlife. This was actually the way Gero and Myuu had opened the gate to Hell in the other timeline. Since, according to 13, Ne-Me-Sys had not even intended to bring 17 and 18 back right not, that was probably what he had intended all along.

Killing them now would practically be an invitation to him to start this entire disaster here all over again and break the border to the afterlife once more. And it would solve absolutely nothing since he had already proven that he could return people from the dead.

No, it was better to leave them here, at least for now.

"I see you have returned to your old habbits," Trunks said as he watched the destruction around them.

"Actually most of that were the others," 18 replied. "We have done not much besides blasting away Doctor Gero and a couple of these alien soldiers."

She herself wasn´t quite sure why she felt the need to tell him that. For some reason, despite all what she had done, it always irked her when someone accussed her of some of the few things she was actually innocent of.

"By the way," 17 asked, "who is the lizard-guy?" He pointed to Cooler who had been standing behind Trunks and watching everything silently. "If he is who he should be by the data, he is dead as well."

"Yes," Trunks replied, "he and I came to and agreement and he has offered to help me for the moments."

"With other words," 18 suggested, "you have agreed not to kill him in exchange for his assistance, right? Very good," she laughed. "I like this, it seems like something **we** would have done."

"You better watch out what you are saying 18," Trunks yelled at her, while she was only giving him a `warm´ smile in return.

Both of the androids had realized by now that, while he certainly made a threatening posture, he made no move to actually attack. Under normal circumstences, they knew, he would have long destroyed them by now. So there was probably something else going on, something that they didn´t know about.

"I have not intention to attack you two," he stated now to their complete surprise.

The Android twins were looking at each other in confusion.

"That is nice to know. But if you allow me the question...why **not**?" 18 wanted to know.

"There is another enemy. He is responsible for all what has happened, including you presence here." There was no point in telling them that this part was probably just an accident, he thought. "Against **him**, it is better if we are working together."

The two were looking at him now as if he had grown a second head.

"You are kidding, right?" Seventeen stated.

"No, there is another thing you should know. This enemy is planning to control you two. Just like Doctor Gero had promised you just now you will be much more powerful. But at the same time you will become nothing more than mind-controlled drones," he told them.

"Okay," 17 responded, "I am listening now."

* * *

**A few explanations:** Not all of the deceased villians have returned, but only a few of them. In opposite to the Super-17 arc is this not a controlled and intended gateway, but a just small breach between dimensions.

The out of universe explanation why I didn´t bring people like Freezer back, was that it would just be too complicated for the storyline.

The reason that Trunks, despite being a SSJ2, is afraid of facing 17 and 18 right now is that in the Super-Android transformation the copies first power the originals (and themselves) up to their full potential. Hellfighter in this state had the upper hand against a base Vegeta who was stronger than Majin Buu.

The next chapter will be the last of the current story-arc.


	9. CH 9: Saving the Future Damning the past

**Chapter 9**

Trunks had by now explained the entire situation to 17 and 18, along with his temporally `partner´, the alien Cooler.

"So this enemy that you are so afraid of is nothing else than Doctor Gero´s blasted computer?" Seventeen questioned.

"Don´t underestimate him, that was exactly the mistake I had made. The system had been active and working for decades, it became sentient and far more, it had created itself an Android body that is more powerful than either of us right now."

"Sounds **just** great," 18 commented.

"We need to hurry up," Trunks stated, "when the copies of you he is building are finished, Ne-Me-Sys will use them to take control of you."

"You have a point here," Cooler spoke up. He had by now changed back into his fourth form, that closely ressembled the final stage of his brother Freezer. "If this being is going to control this two here and turn them into your enemies, you should better stop it, especially if they are going to become as powerful as you claim. But, as I see it, all of that is not truly my business."

"With other words, you want out," the half-saiyan replied matter of factly.

"Look, we agreed that I help you to stop the escaped Hell residents in exchange for my life, I kept my part of the deal. But this here was **not** part of it."

"I see," Trunks said, "I admit that you have kept your promise and against this opponents, I am not sure if you would be a help anyway."

The alien grimaced shortly at the words of the half-saiyan that was here quite obviously belittling his power. At the same time however, even he had to grudgingly admit that he was right. By what he had seen of this `13´ alone, he had absolutely no chance.

"I have done my part," he stated. "Maybe I will just wait and see how you will be doing." He now grinned.

Trunks was now standing directly in front of him. If there was one thing someone should know about the half-saiyan, if there was one thing he was completely dedicated to, then it was the protection of this world.

"You should better not hope that you can use the situation to your own benefit," he said to him in an obviously threatening tone.

"Me? Would I ever do something like that?" the alien asked sardonically.

"Think about it. You don´t even know how long your stay here will be. My personal guess would be that as soon as the Kaios and King Yemma have sorted out whatever has happened here, you will be send back where you come from. Until now you have actually only protected this planet. I don´t claim that this will instantly get you out of Hell, but it should at the very least bring you a few points with King Yemma," the half-saiyan pointed out. "That goes for **all** of you," he said into the direction of 17 and 18.

He knew he was bluffing. The truth was he barely knew anything about the procedurs of the afterlife and he had no idea how King Yemma would react. But he had simply no time to deal with Ne-Me-Sys and keep an eye on Cooler as well, in case the alien decided to start his own rampage.

The easiest solution would be to simply kill him here and now, but to do that after he had helped him would go against everything he believed, not to mention that it would very likely ruin his alliance with the Androids. If they saw him betray an ally, why should they trust him to keep his word to them? he wouldn´t either if he were in their position.

He could only hope that Cooler would buy his explanation.

"I have to say Trunks, in some weird sense it is actually nice to have you around," 18 told him, "now that we are not trying to kill each other for once. As I remember it has always been entertaining with you."

"And **I** remember all too well what your idea of entertainment means Eighteen," he replied.

"Oh yes?" she gave him a smile. "You know? now, when I look at you, I think maybe it was the wrong decision trying to kill you. You have grown up to look quite handsome after all." Her voice had now an erotic undertone.

Trunks could literally feel himself turn red in the face at her last comment and her actually flirtatious behavior. But he came over his initial surprise and more than a bit insecurity, that was then was quickly replaced with anger.

This insane bitch had spend years of both their lives beating him down and tormenting him, just like everybody else. He wouldn´t let 18 get to him like this, not anymore.

"You better shut up Android," he yelled at her. "Don´t think that I let you mess with me like that. This times are long over."

"Really?" she asked him smugly.

But then the Android in question only started to laugh loudly. After a few seconds 17, who she shared a look with, began to fall in.

"Oh Trunks, I had forgotten how much fun it is with you," she told him.

"Sis, I never knew that you actually had a crush on litt´l Trunks here," 17 commented.

For a split second 18 gave him a sharp, very nasty look, before she started to grin again.

"Are you two done?" he asked them. "Because we have already wasted enough time. We have to hurry up, unless you want to become Ne-Me-Sys slaves."

Their demeanor instantly changed and their expression became serious.

A few seconds later they had lifted off the ground and were on their way. They were leaving Cooler behind who was looking after them with an unreadable expression.

xxx

He was now flying towards the installation of Ne-Me-Sys from where they had started their trip to the Gete Star a few days before. The two Androids were in a short distance behind him.

On their way they suddenly came across a sight that all of them knew all too well. They saw another line of explosions caused by ki attacks and a group of citizens fleeing in panic.

As it looked had Cooler´s men not succeeded to take **all** of the Hell escapees out.

Trunks knew they had no time. They had to reach the factory of the Super Computer and stop Ne-Me-Sys as quickly as possible or it might be too late. But knew he would not simply let innocent people die.

He flew downwards in full speed. Split-seconds later he saw what the crowd was fleeing from. It was another alien-fighter in the armor of the PTO, another member of Freezer´s crew.

Like he had seen it so many times before, the alien was taking aim at a small group of fleeing humans. As his first target he picked out a figure that seemed to be a woman. He wasn´t complete sure, since the person was wearing a wide overcoat and had the hood pulled over her head.

Trunks moved in the blink of an eye and appeared just in time right next to both of them. He blasted the resurrected soldier who was standing right in front of her and about to fire his own ki attack to kill her. The alien was completely disintegrated.

Then he turned around, looking at the person he had saved...and froze.

He now recognized **who** he had just rescued. It was indeed a woman, one who he met before, another face he had not seen in years. But it wasn´t a normal citizen as he had at first thought.

No, it was in fact another being from Hell.

xxxxxxx

_Somewhere else...the afterlife_

King Yemma was sitting at his desk. He was just going over the reports about the latest events that he had received. It was, to put it simply, a debacle.

In this moment a group of eight warriors appeared in front of him. All of them had been dead for many years now and all of them had been defenders of the world that the anomaly in question had affected...defenders...at least for a short time in case of one of them.

"Hey King Yemma," the man in front of the group greeted him.

"Son Goku, it is good to see you," he replied.

"Thanks, the same to you," he replied. "You have called for us?" His tonefall held the for him typical cheerfulness, even if the current situation was anything but that.

"Yes I have, I am sure King Kai has told you about the situation?" Yemma questioned.

"He said something about a ahm...disturbance in the barriers between the worlds, as he called it," the saiyan answered.

Right beside Son Goku were standing Piccolo and Vegeta and one step behind them Gohan, Krillin, Tienshinhan, Yamchu and Chaotzu.

After their death they, the Z-fighters, had volunteered to continue the same work here that they had done on Earth as they were alive, protecting the universe. They had by now long become part of the official guardian forces of the afterlife-dimension.

"Yes, for a short while the situation had been quite serious," Yemma replied. "It might actually still be," he added. "The borders between Hell and Earth...between life and death had been temporally broken on the planet Earth. Several inhabitants of Hell had managed to escape in the world of the living and some of them were attacking the planet.

I had already thought we would need to send other fighters from the afterlife to stop them, even if that had broken the natural rules of the universe even further. But to our luck there had been a few other beings on Earth who had been able to do that...one of them was the warrior Trunks."

This raised the attention of one of them.

"Of course my son was able to deal with them. What did you expect?" Vegeta said. "Just like he did with the Androids."

While most of them had been with them since the moment they had died, there was one exception. The saiyan prince had only joined them a few years ago. Before that he had spend some time in Hell as an result of all the atrocities he was involved in during most of his life. The fight against the Androids was actually the first situation where he had truly defended the planet Earth by his own choice.

And even there, as King Yemma knew, there was also a lot of his own personal pride involved. He had just wanted to prove that he was the strongest as he fought the Androids. But he **did** fought them.

"If you say so Vegeta," he replied.

Trusting the saiyan prince had been a gamble, he admitted.

Despite that the Afterlife ruler had not regretted giving him a chance. Vegeta had once again become a loyal member of their team for a long time now. By what he had been told by King Kai and to an lesser degree Goku himself, he had truly changed his ways.

"Listen, most of the ones escaped to Earth have by now been send back by Trunks and the others, but there had also chaos broken out in Hell itself since it happened. I want you to go down there, put an end to whatever trouble is going on and restore order.

And we are still not sure what had caused this anomaly in the first place. For all we know that might not even be the end of it. I want you all to stay ready in case something like that will happen again."

"Of course King Yemma, you know you can count on us," Goku replied with a smile.

xxxxxxx

_"You have disappointed me 13,"_ the voice of the super-computer said to him.

"Have I master?" the Android responded.

_"You have not only failed to bring me Doctor Gero...or even 17 and 18,"_ he stated, _"not only that, you have also actually given Trunks information about my plans."_

A screen in front of him came to life and showed a recording of his last confrontation with the half-saiyan.

"I am sorry about my failure to retrieve Doctor Gero. Sadly Seventeen and Eighteen had already killed him before I had arrived," Thirteen responded.

_"This wouldn´t have happened if you hadn´t challenged Trunks to a fight and lost important time,"_ Ne-Me-Sys computer incarnation reminded him.

"I have to apologize for that master, I admit I had underestimated him. I thought I could take him out of our way get rid of him for good."

_"And now he is on his way here, together with Number 17 and 18."_

"Yes, but is that such a bad thing? You wanted them here anyway...and I am confident that I can take Trunks now. The last fights should have weakened him even more and as soon as the duplicats that you are constructing are activated, Seventeen and Eighteen will belong to you."

_"There are hundreds of variables that could go wrong in your suggested course of action. Out of you are speaking overconfidence and arrogance. Your failure has already cost me greatly and brought us into a difficult situation. But I admit that right now I have no other option than to rely on you to stop Trunks."_

At least until the new prototypes would be ready, Ne-Me-Sys electronical mind thought.

"I am sorry that I failed master. It won´t happen again. I promise you the next time I will kill him."

_"I don´t share your confidence 13,"_ Ne-Me-Sys responded.

"Ultimately...you still have your...alternate plan," the Android reminded him.

_"Yes I have and if the things go wrong in this timeline, I will have to fall back to it."_

It was now a few hours ago that Ne-Me-Sys Android body had stepped through the time-portal and travelled into the past, one past of many, a new timeline.

The time portal however since then was still showing some level of activity, for good reason.

xxxxxxx

All what she could do was starring at her `rescuer´ in frozen silence. She knew he had recognized her, it was clearly to see in his expression and she knew there was a good chance that Trunks might just kill her next.

The young woman named Sera who had been brought back to this world a few hours before, was in many ways in a similar situation like anyone else. She was being hunted, threatened and had to fear for her life, that she actually didn´t even had anymore and was just returned a short time earlier. But she was in danger from two sides.

For the last nine years she had been confined in Hell, for good reason. During the last months of her life she had been a member of the once infamous group known as the `Reapers´, human killers under the direction of the Androids. That was until their masters decided to turn on them.

In the nine months she had spend with 17 and 18, she by herself had murdered nearly hundred people. For her two `comrades´, Haugh and James, it were similar numbers. Of course that was still less than a drop in the water compared to their masters.

Like all the other beings who had been returned from Hell, she and her two former partners, who had appeared right next to her, had been instantly confused as they suddenly appeared back in the world of the living. And as normal humans they had become easy targets as some of the aliens had decided to run amok.

She had survived by pure luck. As humans who had grown up under 17 and 18´s rule of terror, they had known perfectly how it was to hide, to flee and to run and fear for your life. That was also one of the reasons they actually joined them later. For once they wanted to know how it was to stand on the other side, to be the hunter instead of the prey.

The other human had considered them many things, murderers, traitors, monsters, but to them it didn´t matter. They had stopped caring a long time ago.

For once they felt strong instead of weak. This was more important than the fact that the Androids had not longer been targeting **them**, that they were safe, more important that they were supplying them with food, shelter and other goods.

They saw the fear in the eyes of their victims, their helplessnes and were glad that they were not longer part of them. Hell, they were starting to **understand** why 17 and 18 did what they did. They were beginning to feel the same glee in their killing sprees as they did.

At the side and under the protection of the Androids, they were free to do anything and to even the famous Golden Warrior, who was known for protecting civilians and challenging the Androids on a regular base, could do anything to them.

Rules, laws, restrictions, morals, all that meant nothing to them anymore. All what they had to do was to follow Seventeen and Eighteen´s direction and they had power over everybody else.

But in the end all that turned out to be an illusion, as their `masters´ simply killed them as well as they grew tired of them.

xxx

Now, after her return, she was running for her `life´ or whatever it should be called, from some of the other former Hell residents, who were shooting at everything that looked like a human without making a difference. Her two friends, who had been resurrected along with her, had already been killed again. It had just been bad luck. They had been hit by the ki blasts of one of the aliens close to them.

And she was also trying to hide from the other humans, out of fear that anybody would recognize her. Sera knew if they had known who she was, only one who had seen her during one of her massacres, they would kill her and that probably in a slow and very painful way. Not that she couldn´t understand why. She had grabbed a coat from some dead body and had been using the hood to cover her face.

A small part of her knew that it was just paranoia. It was years ago that the Reapers had been active and the number of people who had ever seen them in person was limited. The chance that one of them was actually here and would recognize her was next to nothing. But panic did not know such a thing as rational thinking.

Now however her worst fears seemed to have become true. First she had been caught by one of the rampaging alien-soldiers, only to be saved in the last second.

"You," Trunks said in a cold but controlled voice, recognizing her from these years before.

"Now, look who we have here? It seems we are meeting more and more `old friends´ today," she heard another voice, one that she knew like no other one.

If it had been possible to fall into an even greater shock as she already did, she would have in this moment.

17 and 18 had landed right behind Trunks, but none of them made any aggressive move on each other. The entire scene seemed nearly somewhat surreal.

"Se…Seventeen," she stammered.

"Hey, she does remember me," he remarked.

"What are you doing here?" she asked confused.

As she was in Hell, she had heard that 17 and 18 themselves had been killed as well, even if it first seemed impossible to her. And as it seemed they too had been brought back.

It was something else that she had secretly feared. Meeting her former masters once again had been nothing she looked out to. She remembered all too well how 18 had shot a ki blast through her.

But why were they standing there, peacefully next to one of their worst opponents?

"Well, we have just been send here…just like you as it seems," Eighteen answered. "And since we and Trunks for now follow common interests, we decided to work together…for the moment," she said to the completely distraught woman. She couldn´t help but be amused by the shocked expression on her face.

"We are going after the one who is responsible for all what is happening here," Trunks explained simply. "He is a threat to both of us, so we are cooperating…for the moment," he added.

"Strange, for some reason she doesn´t seem happy to see us?" 18 commented sarcastically.

"You truly ask that? You have **killed **me. You have told us that we would be safe from you if we help you…that we are the single human you won´t kill…and then suddenly, you just turned on us," she yelled. She knew the being before her could wipe her out with a move of her finger and that Trunks would do even anything to defend her was quite unlikely, but right now she didn´t care.

But the two Androids didn´t show the violent response she had expected. They were only looking at her. Their expression showed a strange mixture of pity and actual sympathy.

"You knew what we were and what we were doing Sera. Tell me…have you really expected anything else?" 17 asked her. His voice sounded nearly like explaining something to a little child.

For a few moments her own face became nearly blank.

"No," she finally admitted, "I never thought that you would keep us along for good. I am not that naive. But I thought you would at least keep us with you until everybody else was dead...that we would be the last ones you would kill."

"You know we had actually considered that," 17 answered honestly, "but then it was somehow getting old and we decided to return to the status quo. Don´t take it personally."

"That is enough," Trunks spoke up, "we have no time for your games."

"But you had time to save one single pathetic human when the entire world is at risk," 18 commented, "until you realized who it was of course."

The half-saiyan was glarring daggers at her.

"Yes," he simply replied. His voice was sharp like steel. "And you," he turned to Sera. "I have spend my entire life fighting this two, my master **died** fighting them. Countless humans were being killed by them, but were still trying to help each other. All that while you had nothing better to do than **helping** them. Don´t expect any sympathy from me."

"What do you want to want to hear from me? That I am a monster? That I am not better than them? I know that," she replied.

"Listen, I should just kill you right here. But you are defenseless and in opposite to you I at least try not to be a murderer." Even if he hardly succeeded in that, he thought bitterly. "When all this is other, you and the others will probably return to the otherworld anyway. But if not. If I ever hear about you harming another person, I promise you will regret ever coming back," he stated.

"We have more important things to do than dealing with you." With this Trunks blasted off and left the pathetic woman behind.

"It seems today is your lucky day." 18 grinned at her, before she and 17 followed the half-saiyan.

xxxxxxx

_Ten minutes later_

They were now standing directly in front of the entrance of the cave where Ne-Me-Sys secret Android factory was located.

"We have arrived," Trunks stated.

"Good, then let us pull the plug of this computer once and for all," 17 said.

Without another word the three of them moved forward and entered the cave. Like the first time Trunks was here, they arrived at the installation after a few hundred meters. This time however he and his two companions crossed the distance in less than half the time.

Just as he had thought, their coming was being expected. In front of them was the same computer-console that had given him the information about the past he had visited and the other timelines and right next to it stood the new more powerful version of Thirteen, he with his typical smirk in his face.

_"Welcome,"_ the voice of Ne-Me-Sys greeted them, _"we have been expecting you."_

"So you are the overgrown pocket-calculator that Trunks has warned us about," 17 commented, looking at the computer-console.

_"Number 17 and 18, as we had been in direct contact the last time, I had still been a simple machine that followed commands without any independent thought. As you see, I have become more. You however are still the same. It is a shame really that two of Doctor Gero´s potentially greatest creations have staid two underdeveloped weaklings instead."_

"What did you say?" Seventeen growled. He was obviously not all too keen to take insults from a computer.

"You will regret this words," Eighteen exclaimed.

_"Of course this won´t be the case for much longer,"_ Ne-Me-Sys said matter of factly, ignoring the outburst of the two Androids. _"Very soon you will be a few steps closer to complementation. Thirteen, deal with the half-saiyan," _he ordered.

"With pleasure," the Android said.

"That is enough Ne-Me-Sys," Trunks interrupted them. "Tell me, where is your Android body? I came here to fight **you**, not your lacky."

This words caused an angry grimace on 13´s face, but he said nothing, for now.

_"My physical self is not here, but according to my calculations, 13 will be more than sufficient to kill you,"_ the computer informed him.

It was a lie. In truth he was quite unsure which of the two would win going by their current strength and state.

"Heya Trunks, it´s been a while," the Android greeted him, casually on the surface, but beneath that lay barely hidden rage.

"Only a few hours Thirteen," he responded.

"Really? How about we continue what we have begun then?"

"If you insist," the saiyan responded sardonically and transformed once again into a SSJ2. Both of them threw a punch at each other.

Their fists met in the middle between them and the clash send out light shockwaves in all directions.

The others present mostly ignored this, since the waves were far from being a threat to them. 17, 18 and Ne-Me-Sys were merely following the fight with some interest.

"Now Eighteen, while Trunks is taking care of that guy, I think it is time that we destroy this thing, right?" Seventeen remarked.

_"You underestimate me,"_ Ne-Me-Sys voice told them.

In this moment, in some distance away, another part of his machinery became active. A line of light on a panel at the side of another stasis pod was glowing up, as the being inside this pod was slowly starting to get activated.

xxx

"You want to know why tha master´s body is not here?" 13 said to Trunks tauntingly. "I will tell you."

_"Thirteen stop,"_ Ne-Me-Sys voice called out.

"He is not longer here because he is gone."

_"That is enough 13, don´t give him any more information than he already has,"_ the computer told him. But the Android seemed to ignore what he said.

"He has gone through the time-portal, he has send himself into the past, another timeline that you will never find, a past that will belong to him. You see, even if you stop him here, it will mean nothing, he will just succeed in another timeline."

_"13, just shut your mouth and kill him,"_ the artificial voice began to shout.

xxx

At the same time, in another part of the fascility, a still only half finished Android body inside the stasis pod was slowly beginning to come to life, a body that if it were completed, would look identical to 17.

_xx_

Suddenly Android Seventeen froze in his movement, just as he was about to attack the entity before him. He himself didn´t knew, didn´t realize, what was happening to him, at least in the first moment.

He was starting to loose control over his own body. His mind was starting to get influenced by the still developing consciousness of the unfinished copy that was just getting activated. So far the artificial version of himself was only a non-sentient assemblence of cloned cells and bio-mechanical circuits, a tool for Ne-Me-Sys to control him.

The machine was slowly connecting itself to his body and his mind.

Without any warning artificial energy and physical strength was being realized and manifested itself in a black colored aura around his body.

His till now unused potential was being unleashed as the systems of the so far half-created clone were starting to interact with his own. Energy was flowing through his body in an amount it has never known. His powerlevel was rising…doubling, tripling itself.

"Seventeen?" 18 called out as she saw what was happening.

Trunks on the other hand had a very good idea what was going on. He knew he needed to stop this before it was too late.

"Seventeen, he is trying to take you over. Don´t let him do it," he shouted.

"_Now Number 17,"_ Ne-Me-Sys voice ordered him,_ "kill Number 18 and then kill Trunks."_

The black haired Android, having heard the ridiculous order he had just been given,

"Ne...never," he exclaimed. "Do you think I will let anyone control me? Least of all some stupid thing like you?"

"_Your attempts are pointless,"_ Ne-Me-Sys stated. _"Your counterpart in the other timeline had shown more mental strength than you ever did and even he was only able to bring up only a limited resistance. You new `secondary body may not be completed by now, but enough of it´s systems are to dominate yours."_

"Yes? We will see about that," 17 responded angry.

"Seventeen, the copy, it is trying to connect itself with you," Trunks shouted, "but that goes in **both** directions. If it has access to your mind then you have to his systems. You can locate the other body. Tell me, where is it?"

For a short time, the Android was visibly struggling with himself. But then another grin formed on his face. It showed in the same parts anger, desperation and…triumph?

"_Stop, don´t do it…"_ Ne-Me-Sys said, but it was already too late. 17 had done exactly what Trunks had wanted him to. He had used his newly awakened systems to find out the exact place where his unfinished clone was.

"There," he cried out, while pointing with his hand into one direction, deeper inside the underground-complex.

"Good work Seventeen," the half-saiyan commented. Nearly in the same moment he unleashed a burning attack in exactly the same direction the Android had told him.

His attack ripped through the walls of the cave and through the machinery of the installation. The stasis pods that were holding the bodies of the new Android copies and everything around them was being vaporized.

"No," Thirteen exclaimed as he saw what was happening. His voice sounded nearly over the top, practically theatrical.

Ne-Me-Sys on the other side just registered his failure and angry silence. If he did only had a bit more time to finish his own artificial versions of 17 and 18, if Thirteen had not made the mistake of telling Trunks his plans in advance.

Now, thanks to the incompetence of his servant, he would have to rely on his contingency measures. He nearly regretted at this point giving 13 this new body.

_"Number Thirteen,"_ he ordered, _"destroy the time-portal, destroy it now. I kept it active despite the last malfunction since having Number 17 and 18 in this world had been an advantage and the other resurrected beings were serving as a distraction for Trunks. _

_But since I failed to control them, they are not longer needed. Destroy it and they and the other dead being will return where they belong," _he stated.

The time-portal was what was keeping the resurrected being in this world, Trunks knew now. It had started all that and with it gone things would return to normal.

But why destroy the portal if Ne-Me-Sys wanted to get rid of the Androids? Why not just deactivate it? Trunks understood nearly instantly. This wasn´t about 17 and 18.

If Ne-Me-Sys had truly send his Android version into another timeline, then the portal would be the only way to find out which one. The information had to be still stored somewhere in it´s systems and obviously even the computer was not able to erase it, at least not that quickly.

With lightning speed, Trunks moved and placed himself between 13 and the device.

"Don´t even think about it," he said to the Android, who was just preparing a ball of ki.

_"Destroy it 13 now,"_ Ne-Me-Sys told him.

"That is what you want `master´," Thirteen replied grinning. He fired his ki blast, but to everyones surprise not at the portal, but instead on the computer Ne-Me-Sys itself.

Everything around them, including the time-portal, deactivated as the computer who controlled this installation was destroyed.

Trunks looked at 17 and 18, whose forms were quickly becoming more transparent, until a few moments later they had vanished. They were gone. Everywhere on the planet the remaining beings who had been brought back from the afterlife disappeared in this moment.

Ne-Me-Sys was also gone from this world. While this fight here had been going on, 16 had in another part of the planet destroyed the other remaining installation of the Super-Computer.

All what was left now was Trunks and Thirteen.

"Ya know Trunks, I didn´t feel like serving a master anymore," the Android told him.

"So you have turned on him."

"That is kind of a tradition under us Androids, don´t ya think?"

"That you have told me what Ne-Me-Sys plans were, that was not a sloppy mistake on your part, you wanted me to destroy the clones of 17 and 18 for you," the saiyan pointed out.

"Going by the data, this two would have turned out far stronger than me. And then, would there still be place for an older model like me? Who knew? I wasn´t willing ta take the risk. But I have not betrayed him completely. I **will** destroy the time-portal, after I have killed you."

"Do you think I´ll let you," Trunks yelled.

"As it looks this world is mine now," Thirteen pointed out smiling. "When you are gone, there will be nobody left who can stand against me."

"Yes? What about Beby and his M2 army? As things are now, they could just march in here and you alone could do nothing to stop them," he said, reminding the Android about the information they had seen from the other timelines.

"With you, the last saiyajin gone, they had no reason to come in the first place. Remember, in the other timeline Beby only came because he was after your race. So ya see we all would be better off without you. Why don´t you do everyone a favor and just die?"

"You don´t know that. He was also taking over everybody else and declared himself king of a new empire," Trunks countered.

"Even if they come to conquer this planet anyway," 13 shrugged, "I am sure we will come to an agreement. After all Beby and the M2 are artificial beings just like me, the future of life in the universe and they truly hate saiyajins. And since very soon I will be the killer of the last one…"

In this moment Trunks suddenly blasted him with another powerful ki attack. The blast send 13 flying right through the walls of the already heavy damaged cave to the outside.

"We will see about that," the saiyan commented.

He himself broke free of the rock-formation that was now collapsing around him and flew after his opponent.

His attack had as he saw only caused relatively small damage on the Android who was now floating in mid-air. But he hadn´t truly expected it to. It´s purpose had been to get 13 away from the time-portal.

"Not bad, ya really got me there Trunks," he remarked. "Let´s see how you deal with this."

He formed one of his sphere-like techniques that he called the Double-S and send it down towards the ground. There was no telling how much damage it would cause to the planet, but in every case it would destroy the time-portal if it impacted her and with that every chance to find out where Ne-Me-Sys had gone to. Trunks couldn´t let that happen.

He intercepted the attack and with all his strength stopped it and pushed it back into the air and finally into space where it could not cause any damage.

The Android had just watched everything from the distance.

"Very good. But let´s be honest, how much of your remaining energy had this little display cost you? Ya saiyajins just waste too much energy with such `heroics´. Has been running around fighting the entire day, right Trunks?" 13 mocked him. "You are getting weaker in every second that pass."

"Bastard, did you even care who got killed if that had hit the ground?" he responded.

"To be honest, no," he answered. "Here, I have something else for you." Thirteen send a concentrated ki blast at him.

Trunks knew just like the last time if he tried to dodge it, it could hit kami knows where on Earth and kill countless people. He had to take it head on and block.

He fired his own Buster Cannon to counter the attack. The two blasts met in the middle between them.

13 had been right, he realized after the first seconds, as much as he hated to admit it. His own energy was at it´s limit, while the android´s would never run out.

He knew he could not win under this conditions.

Both their attacks were clashing against each other and both were trying to push the other one back.

Trunks did not knew how long he could continue this, maybe two minutes, maybe not even that and then it would be over. This world would then be completely at Thirteen´s mercy and he knew the Android well enough to know what would happen.

It was just like the last fight between Gohan and Cell at the end of the Cell Games, he realized, as he had been told by the others, since he had been dead at that point.

But he **was** not Gohan. He did not have his practically unlimited reservoir of power.

In this moment 13´s beam pushed his own back by two meters. Trunks managed to caught himself and keep up the resistance. But there was no denying it, he was loosing, piece by piece, second by second, meter by meter.

A great part of him felt like crying or shouting his rage and anguish out to the world, but he would no neither. He would keep fighting till the next moment.

"_I am sorry, I have failed," _he said quietly to himself.

His attack was forced back another meter. He could barely keep it up.

It was over, he knew. He was at the end of his strength and his time was running out by the seconds.

Suddenly however 13 was hit by another attack, one that came from the side.

It was not enough to cause actual damaged, but it was able to throw off his aim and his balance, as it hit his arms and so weakened his own blast that he send against Trunks.

At the corner of his eye, the half-saiyan saw the one who had placed the shot at his opponent, Android 16. It was a completely metallic version of him, made of the same material as the Gete Star.

"Sixteen," he called out.

In this moment Trunks ki blast overcame his opponent´s temporally weakened attack and broke through it.

Thirteen had been taken complete by surprise by 16. Normally he should have been able to detect his approach.

But he did not know that the other Android had created himself a completely new body, from alien materials and a foreign technology that he wasn´t able to detect at long range. He hadn´t even known that Sixteen was still alive in the first place.

To that came the simple fact that he had been completely concentrating on Trunks.

All that came down to a single fact, that the saiyans attack had broken his own and was now hitting him frontal.

Trunks on the other side was seeing his chance and deepened his concentration to bring out the last bits of his power.

"This time there is no way for you to come back," he shouted.

The Android´s body was completely being consumed by the energy he unleashed. 13 was gone.

It had truly been like the end of the Cell Games, Trunks thought. He remembered what the others had told him about his father´s attack on Cell in the last moment, that distracted the monster and gave Gohan the opening to win.

"I am sorry that I come this late," Sixteen said to him. "I have been destroying the other two installations of Ne-Me-Sys. There is only his Android body left now."

"Don´t worry 16, you did great," he answered before he sank to his knees from exhaustion.

It was over.

xxxxxxx

While all this had happened, the single cloaked figure had still been following the events, with more and more interest.

The interdimensional chaos that both Ne-Me-Sys actions and his own interference had created, was now over. But ultimately it would serve his purposes well, in more than one way.

"Very good, it seems one of them has actually decided to move the confrontation to another battleground," he stated to nobody but himself, "and the other will follow soon," referring to Trunks.

"Well, all that makes it only more interesting...and I am looking out for the ultimate winner."

For now he was satisfied with what he had seen.

But things would continue.

He concentrated his energy and used one of his many abilities. Before him formed a vortex in the air, a portal between the dimensions that was opened by his own power and he stepped through the self-made gateway that would bring him into the same timeline where the being named Ne-Me-Sys had travelled to.

xxxxxxx

_West City_

Life on the Earth was returning to normal. Thousands had died. It was only the latest disaster that had befallen the people of this world. Like so many times before, they would survive.

As Trunks and 16 had returned home to Capsule Corp. they told Bulma all what had happened and she in turn gave the government a somewhat simplified version of the events.

In short, Trunks, with the assistance of his partner, had stopped the cause of the invasion and the latest line of disasters and saved the world once again. Going any more into detail, for example about the returned beings from Hell would only cause even greater confusion and possible fear, especially since they still didn´t actually completely knew **why** it happened.

This time though it was a disaster that consequences could, at least to some part, be reversed.

Having merged with the Gete Star, 16 had also gained access to all of it´s knowledge. Like for example the coordinates of various planets in the galaxy…including New Namek.

But for Trunks, all this wasn´t his true worry. It was the other part of Ne-Me-Sys, the Android version that had transported itself into the past, possibly ruining another timeline, just like Cell had nearly done. He could not let that happen.

Trunks asked his mother to examine the now deactivated time-portal that they had recovered from the collapsed cave-complex. He knew it was based on a modified version of their own technology, so she should be able to understand it quite quickly, she had to, he thought. Ne-Me-Sys needed to be stopped, once and for all.

_"Mom, you have to find out where he is gone, to which timeline, which date," he had asked of her._

And Bulma did it. She had been working for days on the deactivated device, but then she had recovered the data, exactly what Ne-Me-Sys had been trying to prevent as he told 13 to destroy the portal in the first place.

But this was not the only problem. With Ne-Me-Sys gone it was impossible to use the portal itself again. That meant they needed the time machine to follow him and it was still not back at full energy.

So they had even longer time to wait. Trunks was using it to train, to grow stronger for the coming fight, that he knew would be hard.

xxxxxxx

_Somewhere else_

17 and 18 had expected to be send back to Hell as they disappeared on Earth.

But to their surprise they found themselves at a place they had never seen before. It was looking like a nearly endless white space, completely empty.

This was **not** Hell or any other part of the afterlife they knew of.

"Seventeen, where are we?" she asked.

"I don´t know," he answered.

Suddenly they realized that they were not alone.

In a short distance to them stood a figure clad into a black cloak, the face covered behind a bizarre looking mask.

"I have been watching you two," the stranger addressed them. "We have much to discuss. I want to make you an offer."

xxxxxxx

16, who had by now at least physically completely merged with the Gete-Star AI into a single being, was salvaging as much of the remains of the star´s central core as he could. He used his new abilities and the nano technology to create out of the metal a new space-vessel, similar in design, but much smaller than the original Gete-Star.

This ship brought him, Trunks and Bulma to New Namek.

During the entire journey Trunks never stopped Training, always remembering what was lying before him.

As they had arrived, they asked the Namekians to allow them to use their Dragon Balls. They of course remembered Bulma from the time of the battle against Freezer and were shocked when they heard of the horrors that had come over Earth during the last decades.

The next day they helped them to summon Polunga to at least erase the damage of the latest disaster, even if they could do nothing to help the victims of the Androids and Cell.

With the first wish, they brought all the innocent people back to life who had died during the attack of the Hell residents and through the fallout as Ne-Me-Sys blew up the Gete Star in Earth´s orbit, with the second they restored the time-machine to full energy, something that otherwise would have taken at least another half year for them.

The third wish was used to bring them back to Earth instantly after they had said their goodbyes to the Nameks.

Two months had past since the fight against Ne-Me-Sys and 13. Trunks was now ready to return to the past.

xxxxxxx

_The past timeline (one of many) – 6 and a half years after the Cell Games_

From one moment to the other, seemingly out of nowhere, Ne-Me-Sys Android incarnation appeared in orbit above this version of the planet Earth.

It was the past. But not the one Trunks had visited, at least not the Trunks from his world. It was a completely different timeline.

He began to scan the new world lying beneath him.

Parallel to that he was sending out a signal to contact the other version of himself in this reality, that he knew to still be a non-sentient machine.

He had purposely chosen one of the universes where Trunks and Krillin´s destruction of the installation that was creating the unfinished Cell, that had permanently crippled his growth, **did** happen.

The last thing that he needed was a dangerous rival in another evolved version of himself.

He was now starting to receive the data from his counterpart about the state of things in this world. So far everything was exactly as expected.

xxxxxxx

_New past timeline, 3 months later_

_A region in the Northern District_

The dark cloaked man was standing in front of a frozen lake. But it was not a natural one.

It was the crash-site of a space-capsule.

He and his two new allies had arrived in this timeline a short time ago, as they followed the AI travelling into the past.

The situation they had found was already promising as it was…but he decided to make it even a bit more…interesting.

Through the ice he was looking at the form of the being who had landed here nearly seven years ago, wounded…nearly dead…but surviving and then frozen and suspended in the water of the rain that had collected itself inside the impact-crater.

He did not say a word or showed any visible emotion while was sending out waves of energy that were thawing the ice. There was only a slight anticipation.

Would **he** be still alive? Would he still be able to do what he was meant to?

He had seen glimpses of this being inside the thoughts and memories of the Z-fighters of this world.

A few moments later it was done and the being was freed, a saiyajin. He watched as the body was slowly coming to life.

"Ka…Kakarot," the saiyan said in a weak voice. "Where is…?"

"Don´t you remember? You have killed him," the cloaked man lied.

He was aware that this reality´s version of Son Goku was dead, like in so many other worlds, but he also knew that this being here had nothing to do with it.

"What? how...I..." the saiyan replied. He remembered the last moments of the battle and Kakarot had still been alive.

"He died from the wounds he had received in the fight with you. Don´t you remember?"

"Who are you?" Broly asked now, still sounding weak, but it was obvious that he was quickly recovering.

"You may call me The Priest," he answered.

* * *

**Authors notes: **The place where 17 and 18 had been send to is in fact a similar dimension as the Room of Spirit and Time.

From the next chapter on the story will continue in the new timeline.


	10. Chapter 10: Dragon Balls no more

**Chapter 10  
**

_New timeline_

_Events of the last three months:_

Ne-Me-Sys had by now accessed the full information of the Networked Mega System of the Red Ribbon Army, his other self.

He had recounted the events of the last seven years and the state of the present.

**Operation 1:** In the first step he had instructed his non-sentient other self to construct a single new Android. Not a particular powerful or unique one or even sentient to begin with. No, in fact it was a simple drone.

This particular Android, which he had with some irony labeled `Number 0´ had, right after his first activation, been going to fulfill his single purpose. Right after his activation, he had send him to a middle sized town in the Northern Districts. He had chosen this location for various reasons. One of them was that it was relatively close to the location of Doctor Gero´s old lab.

Android Zero was not much more than a puppet whose movements Ne-Me-Sys controlled and so he started his task, that was quite simple, destruction.

In the moment he had landed, right at the plaza in the towncenter, he started firing, at houses, cars and crowds of people. He was killing one human who just happened to the at the place after the other, blowing up a large shopping-center and a transport-truck that just crossed the street. All that without a single independant thought of his own, just controlled by Ne-Me-Sys will.

He let his drone continue for a while to massacre everything that came into it´s sight. But not too much.

While he had every intention to draw the attention of everyone, especially the Z-fighters, he didn´t want the government to fall into panic...at least not yet.

His true take-over would come later. For the moment he intended to keep an relatively low profile.

By his estimation Android 0 had by now killed somewhere between 92 and 110 people, depending on how many had been caught by the fallen debris of the buildings he had blown up and if some of the injured ones would survive.

That would be enough. Then he was waiting for the Z-fighters to arrive.

And in fact it didn´t take long for them.

He recognized the first three as Piccolo, Son Gohan and Krillin.

It didn´t take long. Zero´s strength was about comparable with that of the saiyajin Nappa when he and Vegeta had come to Earth. Even the human could have beaten him easily.

It came as it had to be. After his puppet made another move to attack some random citizens, he fell by a single blast from Piccolo.

A shot from the finger of the Namek blew the simple constructed Android to pieces.

Just as he had expected.

Of course he hadn´t been calling himself Number 0 during the confrontation with the Z-fighters, but instead Android 10, a older prototype that had coincidently been activated a short time ago. It was a simple cover story to disguise what `Zero´ truly was.

From the data he had received from his underdeveloped other self, he knew that they had already faced his servants Thirteen, Fourteen and Fifteen and had defeated them. They knew that a computer of Doctor Gero had been responsible for activting them, but they never knew where the computer in question was located, only that it wasn´t the same one that had created Cell since they had already blown it up.

In truth the answer was quite simple. One of his three consoles had created Cell, another one had stored and then completed and activated 13, 14 and 15.

So the idea that another older model had been activated, possible per accident, should not sound too unlikely to them.

One interesting aspect about these events was that the computer that was his counterpart in this timeline had, despite not being truly sentient, had somehow integrated certain aspects of Doctor Gero´s personality into it´s own being, like his hatred for humanity, his strive for perfection and more than anything else, his wish to destroy Goku and all he presented.

All that however were aspects that his current self possessed to an even higher level, only that he also had a sentient mind that allowed him to follow and realize his plans with cunning and patience, instead of only following pre-programmed patterns.

It came exactly like he had planned. Only a few hours later the Z-fighters and Bulma Briefs had collected the Dragon Balls for the purpose of bringing the people his drone had just killed back to life.

_"Shenlong, please bring back everyone who was killed by the Android in Pell City." _That was the way the Named Piccolo had formulated his wish._  
_

One of the spy-drones was recording the entire event.

It was exactly what Ne-Me-Sys had intended from the beginning. If they were using the Dragon Balls now, they would not be able to do it later to interfere with his plans.

There was only one irregularity. As he found out now, the dragon was now fulfilling two wishes instead of one and the Z-fighters were only using the first to reanimate the people that he had killed. That meant the Dragon Balls would only be lying dormant for a half year, not a whole one as he had hoped.

But it didn´t matter. It was still more than enough to realize his plans and then as soon as he had killed the Namek they were bound to, they would never be a problem for him again.

In the world he envisioned there was no need or place for the Dragon Balls.

But he knew there was at least one other set on the planet New Namek.

Deep inside Ne-Me-Sys electronical mind, a file was created.

**Special entry:** Future-mission - genocide of the Namek Race.

xxx

**Operation 2: **Production of a new line of Androids had started in this timeline´s version of the factory installation.**  
**

The first model would be a nearly exact duplicate of his own Android body, one that he would place a copy of his own consciousness into. There were however a few modifications with the new construction.

Beside that he was also building a number of other, weaker new Androids. They would be better constructed and much more powerful than Number Zero, but still far away from his own new secondary body. These Androids would serve as soldiers and disposable servants for him.

But additional resources of raw-materials and energy would be needed.

The method he had used in the future however, sending his agents out to raid human facilities and abandoned settlements, would be quite impractical in this timeline. First of because here the Earth still had her full population and second because it would inevitable draw the attention of the Z-fighters.

So he used another way. He hacked the software of various banks to aquire a large sum of money for himself that he used to buy new materials and parts of machinery. This method did take a bit of time, but it was less problematic and could be achieved in secret.

He decided to eliminate only a small number of potentially dangerous witnesses, for example a few humans who were delivering important packages to places close to one of his secret installations or people who just knew too much about his recent transactions. Still it weren´t too many and so he was able to keep his activities a secret.

Parallel to all that he also begann with the construction of a new space-capsule, identical in design to the one he had used in the future timeline. It would carry a couple of his new Android warriors to New Namek for his mission to exterminate the population.

Very soon the Dragon Balls would never be a problem for his plans again.

There were however also other `raw materials´ that he needed. As Doctor Gero´s last models had demonstrated, completely mechanical Androids could be created to be impressively strong, but biological ones had more potential to grow.

He found what he was looking for.

A group of three humans was driving a car over one of the highways of the mountains of the Northern District. They were far away from any settlemen, obviously on what the humans call a camping trip...and easy to capture.

It were a man, a woman and a young boy of eleven to twelve years. At first he had been tempted to just kill the child. Surely it would be insufficient raw-material for the Android production. But then he remembered the advantages a model like this would have. His opponents would underestimate him and there was also these sentimentallity that humans showed when it came to their young. Yes, on a closer look he would make an promising candidate.

A few weeks later his three new human based prototypes were ready, Number 22, 23 and 24 as he called them. Additionally he also created two completely artificial models of a similar type as `Zero´.

His new foot-soldiers were ready, as would his second body be in a short time.

xxx

A possible problem had arisen. He had just received a report from the part of himself that he had left behind in his original timeline, send out through the time-portal moments before the installation had shut down.

As it looked his servant 13 had decided to turn on him and instead of destroying the portal as ordered, had attacked him.

This meant that, depending of which one of them would won, there was a not very high but substancial chance that either one of them could find out to which timeline he had travelled.

It meant there was a possibility that Trunks would be able to follow him and warn the other Z-fighters of his presence.

The conclussion was easy, speed up the preparations to realize his designs...and make sure that **if** Trunks manages to locate this timeline...there will be nothing left for him to save anymore.

xxx

**Operation 3: **In the last phase of Ne-Me-Sys preparations he was realizing once again another project. One that was quite different and unique from the other ideas he had realized so far.**  
**

It was however an idea that he had not developed fully by himself. Here he had taken inspiration from the data of the other realities he had collected. In this case from Beby´s invasion and take-over of the planet.

He was combining various aspects of Doctor Gero´s bio-engineering and cybernetical technology with the new highly advanced nano-machines he had aquired from the Great Gete Star. All that was being used to create a new, extremely small and extremely sophisticated technology.

The result of his work was already starting to being produced, a new form of microscopic machines, higher developed than either the Gete Star´s or Doctor Gero´s nano-technology and with the advantages of both.

For the human eye, it was looking like nothing but a silvery liquid. But if some of it were injected into an organism, it would start to replicate itself and form biomechanical chips that would be bounding themselves to the brain and take over the entire nervous system. Every chip would be carrying a base-programming that would cause them to submit to Ne-Me-Sys authority, to support his goals and follow his orders.

To that came that he would also be able to gather energy from these humans and channel it into himself to make his main bodies even more powerful.

He had send his three new models 22, 23 and 24 out to spread it under the human population. The `Nano Virus´ as he had named it, would undermine humanity itself before anybody realized what was happening. The dozens who would be infected by his three Androids would spread it to hundreds of others, these hundreds to thousands more and the thousands to millions.

This world would be his without the Z-fighters even noticing. The controlled humans were also programmed to act as unsuspicious as possible, until the time was right.

xxx

**Final entry:** Nearly three months had passed since his arrival in this timeline. Finally he was ready to strike.

xxxxxxx

_Future timeline_

They were ready for the next journey to the past. It would be a completely new past however, independent from the one Trunks had already visited.

Bulma had by now succeeded in analyzing the data of the time-portal and was able to program their time-machine with the coordinates of the timeline where Ne-Me-Sys had gone to. Now they would follow him.

Right after their return to Earth, they got ready to travel. There was only one question left.

"No mother, completely out of question," he said. "You will not come with me."

"Oh really? That is hardly your decision Trunks. In case you have forgotten, it was me who had created the time-machine in the first place."

"That is much too dangerous for you. That world will probably be turned into a battlefield, just like back then with Cell."

"And in our timeline is this Baeby character or whatever he is called and his entire army, who can attack any time they want as you yourself have said," Bulma pointed out. "So you aren´t even sure that it is any saver here."

"**Beby** and the M2 shouldn´t be attacking Earth for the next time."

"But you don´t know that for sure," she replied.

Trunks frowned. He didn´t quite knew what else he could say to convince her. Worse, he wasn´t longer completely sure if she wasn´t right and staying here could be more dangerous than going to the past. He remembered when Beby´s original invasion happened 23 years after Cell. That meant this year. Technically it should have already happened, but obviously the absence of Son Goku, who was not here to confront the M2 in space, had caused him to come here later.

But he would come. There was no way that this creature would let the last living saiyan, himself, get out of his grasp.

"Don´t give me that son," Bulma told him. "Remember, I already went to dangerous adventures long before you were born."

He remembered all too well.

"Mother, please be reasonable. You know that Ne-Me-Sys had retreated into the past. There is no telling how much damage he will already have caused when the time-machine arrives. There is no telling what we would find. We don´t even know in what kind of timeline he has travelled at all. For all we know we could arrive in a world where the saiyajins are still working for Freezer and have conquered Earth."

"That is one reason **more** why I should come with you," she responded. "You said it yourself, we are not sure what you will be faced with. You are travelling to a completely new timeline this time, not one you have created yourself, but one unrelated to ours. I want to be there to make sure that you will ever come back," she argued.

"I have travelled through time before," he replied.

"Not like this. Ne-Me-Sys technology is not longer truly the same as mine. You remember, I have studied his `time-portal´. We are not even completely sure **when** you will arrive. I have tried to pinpoint Ne-Me-Sys date of arrival as precise as I could, but I couldn´t be sure. I know his technology better than anybody else. You might need me."

"Remember, you will already be there. At least in some sense."

"A version of me that knows nothing of Ne-Me-Sys technology and would have to learn everything from the beginning," she responded. "And as you said yourself, there is no guaranty that my counterpart in this world will even be alive."

Trunks realized there was no way to convince his mother otherwise and maybe she was right, they had just programmed the time-machine with the data from Ne-Me-Sys portal. There was no telling what kind of problems could appear when he wanted to return to his own time and if he didn´t manage to return, his own world might be doomed with all the threats out there that he had recently learned about.

He needed an expert for both, his own time-machine and Ne-Me-Sys tech and his mother was the closest thing to that.

"I would truly like to come with you and help," 16, who was standing next to them stated, "but..."

"I know Sixteen, you are connected to the core of the Gete Star and can not longer function alone...and it is impossible to transport it with the time-machine. You don´t have to apologize. You have done more than enough. Without you I would already be dead. Thank you 16."

"I did everything to protect this world Trunks, just like you did. There is no need to thank me."

"Sixteen, if you want to do me another favor. Continue to protect this planet in **our** absence." He pronounced the last words to show Bulma that she had won their argument. "I know if Beby or the M2 should arrive while I am gone, there is not much you can do. But maybe you can at least distract them...hold them off and buy time."

Under these circumstances he knew this was the best they could hope for if the M2 should really arrive. He knew he needed to get stronger if they wanted to have a chance. The best would be if he used his time in the past to drastically improve, like the last time.

"As I told you Trunks, it is nothing you have to ask for. I would do it anyway," the Android responded. "I will do everything that I can."

"Thank you 16," he said.

A short time later Trunks and Bulma entered the time-machine and got unto their way to the past.

xxxxxxx

_Past timeline, 3 months after Ne-Me-Sys arrival_

The saiyajin had by now come fully back to his senses and his physical strength was returning by the second, as the being who was calling himself the Priest felt.

"Kakarot...is dead you say?" Broly repeated once again.

The tall and bulky saiyan, who had fanatically been trying to kill Goku the last time they met, reacted to this news with something barely anyone would have suspected, shock.

"Yes and you killed him," the Priest stated.

"No, I didn´t want this, I wanted to kill him...but not like this. I wanted to **see** him die," he yelled. "I wanted to squeeze the life out of him with my own hands. Dieing just like that? He can not...how can he do this to me?" he asked.

The figure in front of him, the same who had freed him from the ice a few minutes earlier where he had been trapped for nearly seven years, listened for a short while to the demented ravings of the obviously insane saiyan, before he decided to speak again.

"It is a shame indeed. You wanted to give him a warrior´s death, but instead he just died from his injuries after the fight was over. He should have been stronger."

"Yes yes, he should have. How could he?" Broly shouted. "He had robbed me of my victory with his **weakness**. Kakarot, Kakarot, damn it."

"You are completely right. But remember...there are also the others."

"Others?" he questioned.

Without the saiyan even realizing it, the mental powers of the Priest had been reaching out to his mind the entire time, trying to influence him, leading his thoughts away from Son Goku for a few moments and making him more open for suggestions.

"Vegeta, the `Prince of the Saiyans...wasn´t it his father who had tried to assassinate you as a baby by what I have been told? And there is also Kakarot´s son. Aren´t this worthwhile targets?"

"Yes, Kakarot´s son," Broly murmured.

"Punish the son for the failure of the father."

"Yes," Broly said in glee, "Kakarot´s son, Vegeta, I will kill them both. It is truly sad that Kakarot is not longer alive to see this."

"Good, very good. You should know that there is also another powerful being on this planet that might cause problems for you."

"It doesn´t matter, I will crush everyone who stands in my way," Broly declared.

"Good, this is exactly what I had expected of you," the Priest stated.

Suddenly however something in the expression of the saiyajin changed and he looked at the robed figure before him as if he saw him for the first time. The truth was his mind had just broken free of the influence the other had extended over him until just now.

"What is this to **you** anyway?" he asked. "Who exactly are you?" He was now turning his attention fully to the stranger who had freed him.

"As I told you Broly, I am the Priest," he answered.

"So the Priest," he responded, "then you are lucky that you can hold your own funeral speech. I think I will just kill **you** first."

He transformed into a SSJ and send a punch at the hooded man. Despite the wide robe he was wearing, he easily dodged the attack.

"Aren´t you a bit unthankful here?" he replied. "After all it was me who has freed you."

"Ha, I would have gotten free on my own sooner or later."

"Oh sure, but when? and would your opponents still be around then or would someone else have killed them before you could?"

He now avoided a kick and another punch that Broly aimed at him, he was fast, incredible fast.

For Broly it was infurating. Was this guy truly faster than him? No, that was impossible. He was just not back to his old strength.

"Do you really not want to listen to what I have to offer you?" the Priest asked him.

"Not interested, I am happy as things are, with mass destruction and a lot of killing."

"Even if I could bring back Son Goku for you?"

This made the saiyan hesitating for a moment.

"Kakarot..." he said. His eyes were just starring into empty space for a few moments. But then he came back to the present. "If you can bring him back, do it **now**," he ordered.

"Moment, this is not so easy and of course you would have to do something for me in return."

"I said bring him back **now**," Broly roared. "What I will do for you is that I will kill you quickly **after** I have ripped off your arms and legs."

"I see you are not going to cooperate."

"Cooperation, what is that?" the saiyan asked sarcastically.

"I have to admit something," the Priest stated. "I lied to you. Son Goku is dead, yes. But it wasn´t you at all. Someone else had killed him later. And you? He beat you and left you for dead."

In this moment, just as he had heard this words, Broly broke out into a terrible scream that halled over the entire area.

In his complete anger he transformed into his final form, the one that his father had once named the Legendary Super Saiyajin. He knew every other fighter on the planet would have easily sensed his present now.

But right now he didn´t care, should they know that he was back and shiver in fear. Right now he was concentrating on only one thing...to kill the being before him.

But to his complete shock his opponent was still avoiding his attacks. He could not believe it, it just couldn´t be.

"Yes, you are truly the perfect test for the others," the Priest said to him. "My offer stands. Kill Vegeta and Son Gohan and I will reunite you with Son Goku. But don´t blame me if they defeat you again."

"Nobody will defeat me," Broly shouted.

"We will see," he answered. With this words he teleported away and left the rampaging Super Saiyajin behind.

xxxxxxx

_East City_

Hundreds of miles away, Son Gohan, Vegeta, Krillin and the other Z-fighters were sensing that the already horrible ki had just reached a dangerous height. But at the same time they could not even detect the presence of his opponent.

They had already been feeling the rising energy for a while now, they all recognized it.

While all that happened however, they were all also involved into another battle.

Vegeta, Son Gohan, Piccolo, Krillin and Yamchu were standing in front of a group of new, so far unknown, Androids who had been attacking the town. Their leader was nobody else than Ne-Me-Sys. But none of them knew him or his heritage...yet.

None of them knew that before them stood nothing else but a living incarnation of Doctor Gero´s super-computer that had transfered itself into an Android body...or to be precise in two Android bodies. But of this, they also knew nothing.

Ne-Me-Sys detected the new presence as well and like the Z-fighters he wasn´t exactly happy. A new powerful opponent had just appeared.

"Do you feel that?" Gohan asked.

"Of course," Krillin replied. "Why does this have to happen now of all times?"

"It is Broly, there is no doubt about it," Piccolo stated.

"We will deal with him after we have taken out these Androids," Vegeta said, "...or I can go and deal with him now if you think you can take them by yourself," he offered.

Both he and Son Gohan had transformed into their SSJ forms and both could go even higher into SSJ2 if it should be necessary. So they were quite confident here.

"You should not think that this would be so easy Vegeta. I am more powerful than you believe," Ne-Me-Sys responded.

"Oh really? and what Number are you?" the Saiyan Prince asked.

"I don´t have a mere number. You may call me Ne-Me-Sys. I am...you could call it...a `special´ model, very special you could say. Maybe I will explain everything to you when I kill you."

"I am eager to see you try," Vegeta replied.

"You will, believe me, I have powers and weapons that you are not prepared for. You will see it soon."

xxxxxxx

At the same time, in another part of the planet, Ne-Me-Sys second body that was nearly identical with the one that was facing Vegeta in this moment, was standing at the bottom of the Korin Tower.

This was the place. Many miles just above him was Kami´s Palace. He scanned the area and detected three life signs, one of them was namekian. It was obviously who they were, Master Korin, the intelligent cat, the creature named Popo and the namek who had taken Kami´s place.

He took aim and fired a concentrated energy blast upwards. Moments later Kami´s Palace exploded, leaving nothing but ash and debris that was falling down to Earth.

This was the moment Dende, the God and Guardian of this planet died...and the Dragon Balls were no more.

xxxxxxx

Back in the northern regions Broly had been flying so far aimlessly over the landscape. He would find them...Vegeta, the son of Kakarot and the others, he would find them and kill them all.

The words of the masked man who had awakened him were going through his head. Kakarot defeating him? **Him?** No, he would not accept that.

He would have his revenge, he would kill them all. And then the stranger would keep his word and bring Kakarot back so that he could finally beat him...and if he did **not** keep his word, he would kill him as well, in the most slow and painful way he could find.

Dammit, he thought, where were they? He had to find them.

After a few moments however his hectic thoughts calmed down a bit. He realized something...he didn´t need to find them, they would just come to him.

From their last fight he knew that Kakarot and his comrades were having a method to sense energy, even from a great distance.

Somewhere on the horizon Broly saw a town. Good, he thought. A smile formed on his lips.

He flew closer. In his hand he formed a ball of ki.

He laughed after he send it flying down unto the Earth settlement and saw the town vanishing in a large explosion.

There was no way that the Z-fighters would oversee this. Very soon they would come to him.

xxxxxxx

_Two days later_

The time-machine appeared in the air close to the borders of West City and landed not far away from the town.

Trunks placed the machine into a capsule and flew both himself and his mother as fast as he could to this timeline´s version of Capsule Corporation...if it existed that meant.

So far however everything looked quite good. Their hometown looked nearly exactly like it should have, minus the leftovers of the destruction caused by the Androids and they could see the Capsule Corp building in the distance.

It looked as if Ne-Me-Sys had chosen a past that had still many similarities with their own.

They landed a few meters away from the building and prepared themselves to approach it. They had no idea how the local versions of themselves would react. For all they knew they had never met a time-traveller before.

In this moment however Bulma´s attention fell to a building close by, a TV shop and behind the window was standing a running tv.

"Trunks," she called him, "take a look at this."

They were just showing a newscast...about terror attacks and battles all over the planet...and they made mentions about multiple cities being destroyed.

"We come too late," he said.

* * *

This chapter is somewhat shorter as the last ones and is mostly an introduction for the new timeline. More detailed information about it will come in the next parts.

**Side-note:** As it is hinted in this chapter, the Movies 7 and 8 had both happened in this reality, as it was mentioned that the Z-fighters had founght Androids 13, 14 and 15 and Broly. Movie 6 and 9 however did not.

So this is an alternate timeline, to a great part based on the movies.

This new timeline´s versions of 17 and 18, as well as Bulma and Trunks, will be introduced in the next chapter. And the ones already known will of course also reappear.

**nox:** Yes, this will turn into Trunks/18, but not necessarily Mirai Trunks/Future 18.


	11. Chapter 11: New Nightmare

**Chapter 11**

_New timeline_

Trunks and Bulma were about to enter the Capsule Corp building.

They had no idea how the people inside would react when they saw them.

They were not even completely sure who exactly they would met here.

Despite that Bulma just rang on the door. They waited.

Trunks could feel a few well known ki signatures inside. At least they were alright, he thought.

It took a bit over a minute until it was finally being opened.

As she saw that it was nobody else than her mother who had opened, she couldn´t help to be somewhat distraught.

In their own time Trunks grandparents were long dead. They had been killed in an Android raid because they had been at the wrong place at the wrong time. She admitted that their careless attitude that simply ignore every sort of danger had certainly not helped at all.

Here however they were still alive and nothing of that had ever happened.

"Ah, you are back," Bulma´s mother greeted her. She didn´t sounded as if she even noticed that her `daughter´ was suddenly more than a decade older than she should be. Or that she had a different hairstyle and was beside that wearing different clothes than earlier this morning.

But all that somehow just seemed to slip her mind.

"And…oh, it is you." She then turned to Trunks. "You haven´t been here for years my dear," she stated.

"Well, now you are back, so it´s alright. How nice to see you again. Please come in," she said happily to him.

There was not a single word either that suggested that she was aware that the young man standing in front of her was actually her grandson from the future.

So either she didn´t remember that detail or she didn´t care to mention about it.

Bulma loved her mother deeply. But sometimes she truly had to ask herself what in the world was going on in the head of the woman.

From all the possible welcomes here, this was certainly **not** the one they would have imagined.

They had just entered the house.

Trunks had already been able to feel a line of energies from the outside, his father Vegeta and another ki that felt remarkable like his own, Son Gohan, Piccolo, Krillin, Yamchu and Tienshinhan. They were all here.

His guess was that they had assembled to discuss the situation and what to do about it. By what they had seen it was pretty clear that Ne-Me-Sys had already gotten active.

The first they came across after just a few seconds, only a few meter in the corridor, was the other Bulma.

"Mother, can you tell me who was at the door?" she asked the blonde woman who had let them in, before she suddenly stopped. She looked as if she could not believe it as she noticed who was in her house.

"Tru..Trunks," she stammered in surprise as she saw him standing there. She had not seen this man for over six years and she had honestly expected to never see him again. "You are back," she said.

"Yes. Hello mother," he responded.

But in the very next moment the younger Bulma received an even greater shock as she fully realized who was standing right next to him. That she was just looking at...herself.

"And and you are..._me._"

" So `Bulma´, may I introduce you, _my mother_," Trunks stated drily. "As you have probably guessed," he added.

"Trunks," she repeated. "I guess that both of you are here has something to do with the things that had been happened in the last days, am I right?" Bulma had by now caught herself again after the shock from suddenly seeing this two here.

The half-saiyan nodded.

"You are right."

"Well, it was an easy guess. You have no idea what has been going on all over the world. With these new Androids and this so called Legendary Super Saiyan."

"Legendary Super Saiyan?" Trunks questioned. "I don´t know anything about this saiyan, but I am pretty sure I can tell you who is responsible for these new Androids."

"Look, we will explain everything to you. It is kind of a long story," the older Bulma said, "but it would be easier if we have to only explain it once."

"Of course," her younger counterpart replied.

A few minutes later they met all of the others, assembled in the living room.

xxxxxxx

At another part of the planet, two other visitors from another world had arrived on the planet.

It were the latest events, to be precise the other new arrivals, that were the reason for their appearance.

Both of of them exotic looking creatures with pointed ears and skin colors of purple and orange.

This two were in fact nobody else than the Kaioshin, the highest of all still existing Kaios and overseer over the known universe and his bodyguard Kibito.

It were however not the insane sentient AI or Trunks or even the now reawakened Broly who had caused their worry.

No, it was the last group. The one that had so far mostly stood back and waited. But they knew they were the most dangerous ones. They knew one of them was using the godly ki.

In opposite to most other beings however the Kaioshin was able to sense it. What made matters worse was that the energy he felt was by far surpassing his own. He was able to feel it´s presence from millions of lightyears distance. It was even greater than Majin Buu´s and for all they knew it might not even be the full extent of this being´s power.

Maybe it rivalled even...He shuddered at the thought who came to his mind.

...But there was no sense to speculate about that now. The situation was dangerous enough as it was.

Was there any chance that this being did not have hostile intentions? But why else would a god ki user of this power infiltrate their universe unannounced, the same planet where already two other threats to this universe had appeared and the same world where Majin Buu had been burried?

No, this creature, whoever it was, was at least a rogue interlopper, very likely an invader.

"Master, I don´t want to question your decisions, but..."

"Yes, Kibito?" the Kaioshin stated.

"Was it really wise to come here so early? We had to break off our search for Babidi after all and while we are here he might quite likely succeed in collecting the energy to revive Majin Buu somewhere else."

"This new being is more dangerous than Buu," the Kaioshin simply responded. "Don´t think that I don´t take your worries serious Kibito.

Babidi needs to come here anyway and there is a good chance that we wouldn´t have managed to stop or even locate him before that happened. For all we know he could already be here and we wouldn´t know it."

Kibito crinched at his words, but he realited his master was right. They had been looking for Babidi for a long time. The chance had been good that they wouldn´t have been able to stop or even locate him before he landed here anyway.

But that didn´t mean that he had to like it.

"Beside that," the Kaioshin continued, "there are already a number of other highly dangerous entities active on this planet. And then this stranger whose presence I have been feeling since he had entered this dimension. If we don´t do something this universe might be lost even if Buu doesn´t awake at all."

"But Buu is the most dangerous threat in existence," Kibito tried to counter.

Yes, the God of Destruction might be more powerful, he thought, but he was ultimately only doing his job as part of the balance of things and would not threaten to destroy the entire cosmos. Buu on the other hand was pure chaos, pure insanity. He would destroy every world and every living being...leaving nothing behind but a endless wasteland.

Buu was the worst threat, at least that was what he believed.

"Kibito my old friend, I am not longer so sure about that," the Kaioshin answered.

"Master, do you know when this being the North Kaio of this galaxy is sending to us will arrive?" His bodyguard asked, trying to change the topic.

"By what I have been told he might arrive every minute Kibito," he said.

It was less than 60 seconds later that a single figure suddenly appeared in front of them. It was the warrior that the Northern Kaio had promised to them.

"I see you are here," he greeted the new arrival.

"Yes, you are the Kaioshin? Master Kaio and the Great Kaio have told me about you."

He nodded.

"Likewise I have to say. Both of them were so convinced of your abilities to help us that they offered to release you from the afterlife for one day. I am glad that you are here Son Goku."

xxxxxxx

_Capsule Corp_

For the Bulma from the future the experience was nearly surreal. Here were her friends, the same ones who had died in her world over twenty years ago.

Krillin, Yamchu, Tienshinhan, Piccolo, Son Gohan, her parents...and Vegeta, they were all there. But at the same time they were not truly the same one that she remembered...not really. Different timelines, she knew about this.

Still seeing them all, at least in some form, was nearly...a wonder to her.

"Trunks," her son was greeted enthuastically by Krillin and then a bit more reserved but more than happy by Son Gohan and finally by Vegeta and Piccolo.

"Son," that was all the Saiyan Prince said as he greeted him.

"Father," he replied in a similar manner.

"It is good to have you here," Piccolo told him. "Not just because we are happy to see you, but we can use all the help we can get."

"Always right to the point, what Piccolo," Trunks stated. "We have actually come to warn you. I dangerous enemy had travelled from my future into this timeline. But as it seems he had already gotten active."

"You mean this character calling itself Ne-Me-Sys, also known as Doctor Gero´s super-computer?" the namek commented. "Yes we had the displeasure and sadly he is not the only problem. Broly is back. He has somehow survived and made it to Earth."

Trunks mother was silently watching the exchange. She knew that her son had been in the past before several times before. For him this wasn´t really new anymore. But for her...it was much different. This people here, her friends and family had been dead to her for so long.

But there were also two others, two she would not truly have expected to be here, Seventeen and Eighteen. They were the versions of then from the past that Trunks had told her about...or at least very close alternates.

Friends and allies instead of deadly enemies, their presence alone was a clear sign to her that this was not her own world. Alone seeing 18 sitting so close to Krillin was nothing else than bizarre to her.

"As you see every sort of help is welcome here," Seventeen commented.

Trunks was looking at him for a few moments. While it was the face of his old enemy, he knew perfectly well that this man wasn´t.

"I will of course do anthing I can," he said. "But I have to admit, I have never heard of this Broly."

"What? But you have been there with us during our battle against him," Gohan pointed out.

It was nearly painful for Trunks to look at this man. He was now looking nearly identical to the Son Gohan he had known in his youth, not longer a little boy like during the Cell Games. The Gohan he had known was 23 when he died, this one was 16.

For Bulma all this was even more unsettling as for her son. Gohan, Vegeta and the others, even Seventeen and Eighteen, they were like twisted mirror-images from the past.

Then there were the children, most of them having never been born in her timeline. There was a little blond girl, who she had been told was named Marron, the daughter of her old friend and the Android, who was sitting close to her parents.

Right next to the younger version of Trunks was a boy who was the exact image of Son Goku as a child, Gohan´s younger brother Goten.

He only had the chance to exist because thanks to the heart medicine that Trunks had given to his father all those years ago, Goku did have a few months longer to live. It was a unplanned and very lucky side effect of their time travel...or at least of another version of them somewhere out there in the multiverse. After all they knew that this wasn´t truly the past they had changed but a similar other timeline.

And she didn´t even knew how to feel or what to say as she saw Vegeta. The father of her child...the man who, as it looked like, in another life she would have actually married, if only he had survived, like it happened here.

"Ahm Vegeta, it is good to see you" she finally brought out.

Great Bulma, she thought. You have not seen him for 23 years and what is it you say to him? _`Ahm Vegeta´, it is good to see you._ Yes, that was truly worthy of a woman who was calling herself a genius.

"I have been told that there are two of you here now," he responded. "As I see it you are the one from a timeline where I died."

She nodded.

"You have raised Trunks well," he said. It was a simple statement. But coming from **him**, it already meant much to her. "and it is good that you have survived," he told her then, before he fell silent again and returned his concentration to the talk of the other Z-fighters.

It was not much what he had said. But coming from him it was actually more than she would have expected. Knowing how `her´ Vegeta had been before his death, she would have certainly thought it possible that this one would have just ignored her existence.

After all she was not even the Bulma he knew. And he had never been one to shoch any emotion if he didn´t have to. Still his few words left an somewhat empty feeling inside her.

In the minutes right after they had met the younger Bulma, they had exchanged a bit of basic information about this world with her. As it seemed this world was truly very close to the past Trunks had visited the times before.

Goku´s victory over Freezer on Namek, Trunks own appearance three years before the Androids, killing Freezer and Cold, the more peaceful versions of 17 and 18, the Cell Games, Goku´s death, all that had happened here as well, nearly the same as they knew it.

But there were also events that were completely unknown to them.

Especially the appearance of this new super saiyajin. By what they had been told he devastated nearly an entire galaxy before they first met and then had tried to kill all of them...and nearly succeeded.

`Broly, who is that?´ Trunks had basically asked as he heard the name for the first time.

They had received more than a good explanation. As it looked the situation was even worse than they had first thought. Not only was the enemy here they wanted to warn the others about, but also another one who was just as dangerous.

"Tell me," Trunks asked them, "what exactly has happened in the last days?"

All of the Z-fighters were exchanging several glances with each other. Finally they were all looking at the Android twins of all people.

"I guess you could say we have been the first to ahm `make contact´ with him," 18 stated.

"At least you could call it that," 17 commented with some bitter sarcasm. What had happened two days ago was certainly nothing he liked to think back to.

xxxxxxx

_2 days earlier_

The woman known as Android 18 had to admit she was irritated.

She and her brother Android 17 were currently standing on top of the roof of a building in East City.

What in the world was she even doing here? A part of her asked herself.

It was less than two hours ago that her brother had suddenly appeared at Kame house, after she had not seen him for nearly two years at that point and literally dragged her off. She didn´t even know where he had been or what he had done in that time.

On the one hand this was just like 17, coming and going how he wanted without warning. But on the other all of that here felt somehow strange to her.

Normally he was at least willing to answer simple questions. But today he had only announced something about that he found out an important secret about their transformations into cyborg Androids.

Both her husband and the Turtle Hermit were too surprised to even say much about it or even protest as he just bursted in like that. They were for the most part only starring a little confused as her brother took her by the hand and led her away.

_"Okay honey, we will see you later then," _that was all Krillin actually came to say before they were already out of the door.

Without another hold-up the two Androids were flying away. Despite that she sometimes said otherwise, 18 trusted her brother´s judgement generally and if he told he he found out something important than it was certainly so.

xxx

And now they were here, standing on the top of a building of a town hundreds of miles away. So far he had still not told her anything concrete.

"Okay Seventeen, **tell me**, why exactly are we here?" she wanted to know.

The expression on his face turned into a grin. At the first look it was the same confident smile of him that she knew all too well. But today she couldn´t help but feel that something was off about it. It seemed somehow forced.

"As I had told you 18, I have found out a secret about our creation and I am here to share it with you," he said to her.

His voice in this moment sounded somewhat apathic, nearly emotionless. In this short moment her brother nearly felt like a stranger to her.

"You remember what I have told you about what I have found out about our full potential, that Doctor Gero had never realized?" he asked her.

"Of course, but what...?"

"In **your** case he had been actually actively trying to hold you back," he stated. "Too sad, I think he had already been figuring out that he could not trust us. Well, that time is **over** now. Soon we will be what we were always meant to be."

"What in the world are you talking about?" she asked.

More and more the feeling grew in her that something was wrong. Seventeen´s behavior was more than weird.

"The humans," he said now, "they think this planet belongs to them. They will soon learn."

With these words he was preparing a ki blast in his hand...and to her her complete shock he fired it down into the town, hitting the highway and blowing up a line of cars.

"What are you doing?" she shouted now outraged. "How could you...?"

It was now not longer only her brother´s growingly bizarre behavior. His last action had have to actually killed people. Why in the world had he done this?

_I thought we were not like that, _she thought silently.

"I told you that I have found out a way to reveal the secrets of our creation. But I am not the one who will explain them to you. No, it will be the same being who had opened my own eyes as well."

While she was still starring at 17, who was obviously not longer the brother she had known, she noticed that another being was quickly coming closer. It was a man who was **flying** over the town, as 18 saw now.

She could not feel any ki from him. Eighteen had never been particular good at sensing energy, but the total lack of any emision, despite the fact that he had obviously powers, made it very likely that he was like themselves, an Android. Or maybe some other unknown being.

The stranger stopped in mid-air, right in front of the building they were on and was looking down at them.

"Seventeen," he greeted them, "as I see you have brought your sister to me, just as I have told you, good."

"Yes," 17 answered, "I am glad to present her to you." His voice if anything sounded even more emotionless than before.

For 18 it all came falling into place now. She didn´t know who this man, this Android, was. Or how he even came into existence. Gero had been dead for years. But going by the tone the stranger spoke and the way Seventeen acted just now, it couldn´t be good.

What the hell was going on here? How did he even came to be involved with this being?

She had been led here and that by nobody else than...

"17 what have you done?" she exclaimed.

"Ah Number 18, the stranger addressed her. You should not blame Number 17, at least not fully. Your `brother´ was in the last time, how do the humans say it? not quite himself."

Suddenly Seventeen´s eyes started to glow red and his entire body froze.

"What have you done?" Eighteen asked him now angrily. "And who are you? You are an Android like us, but how and when had you been created. Doctor Gero is dead and all his older models had either been destroyed or given up before they were even finished."

"Like you Number 18? No, not at all," he stated. "Who you ask? That is a question that is not so easily to answer, especially to an simple individual creature like you. But don´t worry. You will find out everything very soon. For now you can call me Ne-Me-Sys...or just master."

Eighteen at this point had more than enough. She blasted off the ground and was about to attack this new Android, as he was suddenly grabbed from behind.

"Seventeen," she called out. 18 tried to break free of his grip, but his strength was unbelievable. She as well had trained during the last years and become stronger, but not like **this**.

"As you can see I have already helped your brother to gain access to the potential that had so far been unrealized," the stranger told her. "I will do the same for you."

It was in this moment as she sensed something that felt nearly like an ice cold hand reaching out to her, right into her mind. She felt her body freeze and her mind was slowly beginning to loose it´s hold on itself as the world around her became dark.

One of the last things she was able to hear was the sound of explosions coming from different parts of the city around her.

xxx

It was over a half day since the disappearance of 17 and 18 and the Z-fighters had arrived in the area of East City.

They all had felt the loss of life signs nearly instantly. People were dieing and that in great numbers. So many that it could only be an attack from super powered beings.

Despite that they were not able to detect any ki from the attackers.

According to Krillin, the last time he had seen his wife was when her brother suddenly appeared and said something to her about finding out something important. Then he had not heard anything from her anymore until the attacks started.

The most simple explanation would have been that it were 17 and 18 who were attacking the place, but none of the Z-fighters would actually believe that. Aside from the fact that at least Eighteen had been a friend and ally for years now and in all that time they had showed no sort of aggression.

And if they wanted to cause this kind of destruction they could have easily done it years ago right before Cell had appeared.

But they had a certain suspicion that whoever was behind this attack might also be responsible for 17 and 18´s disappearance.

As had arrived over they town, they instantly had a good picture of what was going on. Buildings had ben reduced to rubble, highway broken apart, entire city blocks obliterated. Explosions were still occuring at different places all over the area. It were several attackers at least.

In front of them they made out a single man who was floating above the area and seemed to be overseeing the destruction. They could feel no ki signature from him, just like from the attackers on the ground. Another Android, they all thought.

"The Z-fighters, just as calculated you have arrived," the man greeted them. "Son Gohan, Vegeta, Piccolo, Krillin and Yamchu," he called them all by name.

"Who are you?" Gohan asked him. "I thought there were no other Androids left."

"Interesting," he commented, "Number 18 had asked me the same thing. Her questions have been answered by now."

"Eighteen," Krillin exclaimed, "where is she, what have you done to her?"

"You will find out this information really soon," the man answered.

He made a slight gesture with his hand and a group of three other Androids came rising up from different parts of the town were they had been rampaging until a few moments ago. In truth it was of course a mental command from him what had called them.

To their horror the Z-fighters realized that one of them was only a young boy. Was he just designed to look like that or were this models human based and they had actually converted a child?

xxxxxxx

_Somewhere else_

A trio of beings had at the same time been following the events from a secluded place. Actually it was only one of them who had been watching what was happening with supernatural senses. But over a telepatic link he had formed to the other two, he allowed them to see as well.

For now however they ended their `observation´.

"That was, well...**not** what I would have expected," Android 18, the one who came from Trunks timeline, stated.

"You can say this," 17 added. "It is hard to believe that this two are **us**. Hell, my counterpart needed to get brainwashed into actually killing a few humans."

"They are now exactly the same as you," the strange being they had met in the place between the dimensions, who was calling himself simply `The Priest´ told them. "The process that had transformed you two into what you are today had in their cases been subtly different than in yours. So you are not completely identical. The humans he had created you from were of course the same ones." His face turned to them.

"But all that is not truly your problem right? You have other priorities right now than the nature of your counterparts in this world."

"If you say so," 17 responded sarcastically. "By the way, you have promised us a lot, but now we are just sitting around here."

"Yes, you helped us to stay in the world of the living and offered us ways to become more powerful. But we are doing nothing with it."

"Really? Yes I remember," The Priest answered with nearly equal sarcasm. "I have already told you that I wanted to let this battle play out however it will end. I want to see the winner. Take it as a **game** to find out who is better," he remarked.

Both of them easily understood the underlying message. They themselves had called their acts of mass murder and destruction `games´ for many years.

"But it seems you two are bored," he said to them. "Now, there are still some other things I have to do for you. I think you will greatly enjoy them."

xxxxxxx

_East City_

The Z-fighters were quickly reaching the point where they thought that it could not get any worse.

They had just been in the middle of their confrontation with this new group of Androids, as they sensed something that might be even worse than them, Broly.

But this was not even the end.

"You wanted to know what happened to Number 18," the leader of the Android group addressed them, "I will show you."

At his command suddenly both 17 and 18 came flying in and took position next to the other Androids. To the Z-fighter´s shock they were facing **against** them.

Both of them had completely blank faces and their eyes were glowing red.

"What have you done with them?" Krillin asked angrily.

"It was small part of a never realized project of Doctor Gero. One that was meant to bring out the full potential of this two of his creations and surpass even Cell. Now I am using parts of it for my own plans."

"He is controlling their minds," Piccolo stated. "So much is clear."

"You don´t need to tell me Namek," Vegeta responded. "That is obvious."

"Eighteen…Seventeen snap out of it," Krillin shouted desperately.

"About my identity," the stranger continued, "it is a complicated matter. What you see here before you is actually an Android body created by me. But **I** am actually far more. You have in fact made my acquaintance in the past.

So far I have been simply known to you as `Doctor Gero´s Computer´," he told them.

"What?" Some of the Z-fighters called out.

"You mean?" Piccolo exclaimed.

"If I remember right Krillin, it was you who had, together with the time-traveller, destroyed a small part of me along with the unfinished version of Cell," he mentioned. "I will gladly order Number 18 to execute you for this trangression."

The horror and anguish that the short statued Z-fighter felt were now overblowing as he heard that this monster planned to force his own wife to kill him and that for something that he had done to protect this world.

"18 come back to me," he shouted desperately.

To Ne-Me-Sys own unsettlement however he saw that the mind-controlled Android visible hesitated and was trying to break free of his influence.

"Attack," he ordered all of them now.

They had so far only exchanged a few blows with each other before, but it was enough for the Z-fighters to see that they would easily be able to deal with the weaker Androids.

The two humans Krillin and Yamchu had problems, but Piccolo and the saiyajins could easily take them all by themselves. It was only because that none of them had been fighting serious so far and only testing their opponents that they were still standing.

Their leader Ne-Me-Sys however was a different question.

Vegeta had turned straight into a SSJ2 and attacked him directly, hoping to end this here quickly so that they could deal with the other threat. But to his unwelcome surprise he realized that the other seemed to be easily holding himself against him in this form.

And with 17 and 18 joining the fight on the other side, the situation had changed completely.

Seventeen landed a vicious hit at Gohan in his SSJ1 form. Piccolo struggled with Eighteen who seemed to be at least as strong as him.

Vegeta tried to land a hit on Ne-Me-Sys, which he however blocked with his arm.

"So you are this computer," the Saiyan Prince remarked. "You have uploaded yourself into a Android body as I see. I won´t help you."

"Fool, I have become far more than you can ever imagine. A primitive humanoid like you has no chance against me. I think Number 13 had already pointed out my evolution to you when you thought seven years ago."

"He mentioned something like that before we destroyed him," Vegeta stated. "You will be next."

"Really?" he asked. "Number 18, do it."

The Z-fighters saw that Eighteen had for a short moment gotten the upper hand against Piccolo and then grabbed Krillin who had been fighting one of the other cyborgs. Now she was holding her own husband hostage.

"Kill him," Ne-Me-Sys ordered. But once again, he saw, she hesitated.

In fact, he had not told the Z-fighters the entire truth. He had used parts of Doctor Gero´s Super Android project to control both 18 and 17. But he knew all to well about the failings of this control.

He had unleashed part of the Android twin´s potential, but not nearly as much as he could have.

The truth was he had set all this here up mostly as a test. If his control over them would proof to be complete, he would use them to destroy the Z-fighters and they would become his prime warriors, if not he would have lost very littly and he would use this chance to weaken his enemies.

"No," 18 stammered now," I...I won´t do it."

"17, destroy her," Ne-Me-Sys said now.

But just like his sister, he was visible struggling with himself. Suddenly his expression became clear.

"What? Where am I? What am I doing here?" 17 asked. **"You,"** he growled as he saw Ne-Me-Sys, recognizing him.

"I see," the AI stated. "So the experiment had failed."

He summoned a large amount of energy, preparing to fire it at 17 and 18 as long as they were still confused and had their guard down.

If he would not be able to control them they would be to dangerous to be kept around. So he would destroy them now.

He fired two giant ki blasts that were meant to take down both of the Android twins. They would in this angle also wipe out half of the remaining city, but he didn´t care as long as they fulfilled his objective.

But to everyone´s surprise Vegeta interfered and blocked them with an attack on his own that send his blasts off course. Sadly one of them still his the town area and leveled several city blocks.

"Don´t misunderstand me," the Saiyan Prince stated, "I have certainly not grown cozy with the two machines. But if **he** wants them gone so much, it is obviously in our interest to keep them around." And he admitted he owned the blonde one one because of this entire Cell business, he admitted silently.

"Vegeta," the AI now said with visible anger.

"Yes, you should not forget about me. Come," he said to the others, "we first destroy **this** abomination here nad then we will deal with Broly."

"Are you sure about that?" Ne-Me-Sys asked them. "Have you sensed the two energy sources that my sensors detected a short time ago?"

"What do you mean?" Gohan questioned. "...Oh now, these idiots," he called out a few moments later.

What they felt were the ki signatures of Trunks and Son Goten, that were moving right into the direction of Broly. Obviously his awakened energy had taken their interest.

What the two saiyan children didn´t knew was that the Legendary Super Saiyajin so far had revealed not even a fraction of his true strength. Neither of them was aware how dangerous Broly truly was.

"Broly is still suppressing his power," Yamchu stated. "They don´t know what they are getting into."

"They are running to their doom," Piccolo said, "unless we stop them first."

"Yes, exactly," Ne-Me-Sys pointed out. "You have the choice now Z-fighters. You can stay here and try to defeat me, whatever your chances are. But do you truly think you can do it quickly?

Even if you manage to take me out, your `precious´ children would be long gone at this point. Now, what shall it be?"

"Damn it," Vegeta called out.

In the end, they made the only choice possible to them. The battle against Ne-Me-Sys would happen another day.

xxx

It was a short time later that they found out about the destruction of Kami´s Palace. Dende was not longer alive and the Dragon Balls didn´t exist anymore."

xxxxxx

_Capsule Corp Building, present_

"And that is about the point where we are now," 18 said to him. "Except of course the TV broadcast."

Vegeta was sending both his young son and Son Goten a glare about the distraction they had unwillingly set up for the enemy two days ago.

"What TV broadcast?" the older Trunks wanted to know.

"You remember the Cell Games?" Piccolo questioned.

"Of course...you mean?"

"Yes exactly, this Ne-Me-Sys creature announced his intentions for the entire world to hear," Vegeta stated, "just like Cell did."

Bulma stood up from her place on the couch where she was sitting.

"Wait a minute," she said. "We actually have the broadcast recorded. I will show you."

She turned on the large TV screen at the side of the room and pressed a few buttons on the displays. A few seconds later it began to replay what had happened one day earlier.

xxx

At the first look it had still been at least relatively normal day in many parts of the world. It was true that many areas were in panic because of the mysterious wide scale attacks on East City and a place named Jaratown in the Northern Districts, that seemed to have been just wiped from the face of the earth.

True, the concerned districts were in panic. But for the rest of the world things were mostly going on as usual.

So was it for this city in the Central Districts, a few hundred miles away from Satan City.

That however was about to change right now. Just like it was for the entire world. For everyone it would very soon become a flashback to the time nearly seven years ago, when Cell had announced the end of the world.

Now once again was a single being was flying over the landscape straight in the direction of the town center. Just like Cell did these years ago, he had the same destination, the building of the local TV station and just like him he also showed no restraint to just blast his way inside.

In Ne-Me-Sys case however it was not just ego and the need for theatrics, but cold calculation. With this acts of destruction he made an impression.

This had been one very valuable side effect of Cell´s violent excesses, the pure fear that they spread into the population and the attention that came with it.

The human named Mister Satan on the other hand had not only managed to fool the majority of the Earth´s population not only into believing that it had been **him** who had defeated Cell, but also that Ne-Me-Sys so far greatest creation had been far less dangerous as it truly was. And he did all that with nothing but empty words and the ability to put on a show.

Well, Ne-Me-Sys had learned from both of them.

This exactly was what he had in mind as he broke through the last wall and stepped into the studio.

The human camera crew and the newscasters were looking at him in complete horror.

"Who…who are you?" one member of the personnel asked him, visible shaken by his entrance.

But he just blasted the man away. He made sure that the camera caught him doing it. It was a question he had already heard all too often in the last days. Now he would answer it for everyone, once and for all.

A group of tried to stop him by pointing their guns at him, but he easily killed them as well with a few extremely low leveled ki blasts.

Ne-Me-Sys hoped that **this** would make enough of an impression before he addressed the audience.

"I offer you my greetings members of the human race," he began his speech, "I speak to you to announce the beginning of a new age. As some of you will probably be able to conclude, I am the being responsible for the series of attacks on East City and a number of other places during the last days."

Actually it was Broly who was responsible for a few of them, but he saw no reason to bring this up. The appearance of this so called `Legendary Super Saiyan´ was only another disturbance to his plans. But he would be dealt with in time.

"But first I may introduce myself to you," he said, "I am an Artificial Intelligence originally designed by the Red Ribbon Army, especially by the ingenious Doctor Gero, my creator.

He was the only leading member of the army who had survived the destruction of the army who had survived it´s destruction many years ago by the fighter named Son Goku."

xxx

All over the planet people exchanged surprised looks as they heard this.

The Red Ribbon Army was only a word out of old stories for most of them. They had of course heard about the reign of terror that this organization had once led over parts of the world, but this had all been decades ago.

Out of all of them however, it was King Furry who specifically took in the information that it had been Son Goku who had destroyed the Army. He had already known that the former World Champion had been responsible for the defeat of King Piccolo.

But as it looked this world owed this man far more that few people ever knew about.

xxx

"I am called the Networked Mega System of Red Ribbon," he continued to speak. "Originally I have been a self learning computer system, programmed to realize the Army´s plans of world domination. This designation however is not longer fitting. I am not longer the primitive AI system that I have once been, I have grown, evolved, I am now far more than ever had a living being before.

So you will address me by my chosen name Nemesys. I, as I am now, am the final product of a development that has taken decades to fulfill. I am the ultimate, the perfect, being.

I know you have heard this words before," he stated, "but this time they are true.

For a long time Doctor Gero and I have worked to realize the noble goal of the Red Ribbon Army, to create a new world and along with it a new race. Now this goals are about to become reality.

Over the years we have executed many plans that were meant to end the world and the human race as you know it. Our so far most successful creation, **`Project Cell´**, had announced itself to you seven years ago.

And despite his ultimate failure and despite that Doctor Gero himself was not longer alive to see it, Cell had succeeded were so many others had failed. Right before the `hero´ named Mister Satan stepped up and stopped him, he had killed Son Goku.

But all that means very little now. I am already far more powerful than Cell had ever been."

He could have told them the truth about their so called savior Mister Satan right away, but he decided not to. Aside from that most would probably not believe it, it would be far more effective to destroy him later and completely crush all hope that the human race had left along with it.

xxx

The confusion of the people around the world now turned into absolute horror as **this** being revealed his connection to the terror known as Cell. All what was left to them was the hope that once again, Mister Satan would save them.

Out of all of them however, the horror was most prominent in one special being who was as well watching the broadcast, a certain `World Champion´.

xxx

"A new age is beginning, my age," Ne-Me-Sys announced. "Humanity prepare yourself," he said. "The ones of you who manage to prove themselves worthy to me will be converted into my creations, into Androids. The rest will be brought to an end very soon."

With this words he fired a ki blast through the walls of the studio, just like Cell did seven years ago, that devastated half of the town lying behing it.

The transmission ended.

All what was left was a world in terror.

xxxxxxx

_Now_

Back in the present Trunks was starring at the screen after the recording had ended.

Ne-Me-Sys had really revealed a lot, about the Cell Games, Doctor Gero, the Red Ribbon Army, Son Goku. The only things that he had not mentioned were time travel or the truth about Mister Satan. But he was sure the AI had it´s reasons.

xxxxxxx

Many miles away the robed man known as The Priest was watching around in silent satisfaction.

He was standing in the middle of a field of dead bodies.

It was a short time ago that he had located the burried space-ship of the being known as Babidi and that he send 17 and 18 off to deal with them.

They did an excelent job, he admitted.

"It was quite interesting," 17 stated, "but a bit easy."

"Yes," 18 remarked, "only the red guy with the beard even stood a small chance."

Indeed, The Priest saw, only Dabura had even been a challenge with the new powers they had obtained under his guidance. But even the former demon lord, who had become Babidi´s slave was now lying dead before him...and of course the wizard himself, good, very good.

He turned now his intention to the being that was suspended in mid air before them, that he had brought along here as he came to inspect the work of his two new allies, his prisoner.

It was nobody else than Dende, the God of this planet.

* * *

Finishing this chapter had taken far longer than usual, since I was held up with some other matters during the last weeks.

To Nox: Mirai Trunks/ Mirai 18 will play an important role in the rest of the storyline, even if it will not necessary be the finaly pairing.


	12. Chapter 12: A Prince s last Stand

**Chapter 12**

_New Namek_

The two figures were standing in front of the group of Namekians. This invaders had landed on their planet less than the equivalent of a quarter hour of their time before.

Both of them were Androids, mechanical constructions send here by their master AI to fulfill his orders.

In that short time since they had arrived, they had already destroyed most of the Namek village closest to their landing place and killed a number of the inhabitants.

_xxx_

The citizens had only been watching as the ship of the two invaders had descended and as soon as it had touched the ground, it´s lock opened and the Androids started their attack. Visitors from other worlds, friendly and unfriendly, were nothing new to the Nameks, even before Freezer´s attack years ago and their meetings with the Z-fighters.

There had always been those who had been seeking for the Dragon Balls, for good or evil purposes...and there had been such who were trying to take them by force.

But **this** was something completely different. The strangers had not even said a single word before they started to shoot. They had not even asked for the Dragon Balls...or anything else for that matter. It was as if their only purpose to be here was just to cause destruction.

And that was exactly the case. They were there to destroy everything. But even in that they had priorities.

_xxx_

Despite that, the Nameks had also learned to be prepared for possible attacks and they managed to bring the greatest part of the non-fighters and the young out of the village before it was completely devastated. Still a number of Namekians had lost their lives.

Under this victims however was, to the very bad luck of the Nameks, already the person the invaders had been targeting for most.

Grand Elder Moory was dead. He had in fact been one of the first who had been cut down by their assault.

This was no coincidence. The two attackers knew exactly who had been their main target on the planet. From their master´s surveillance of various other timelines, they were completely aware which one of the Namekians was the most important for them, which one was the current keeper of the Dragon Balls. With his death they were now gone as well.

Their main objective for the invasion was the removal of their power, with other words, to kill the Grand Elder. Which was the reason they had concentrated their fire first on the place where they had located him before they widened their rampage to the entire settlement.

But to completely make sure that they would never appear again, Ne-Me-Sys was intending to destroy the entire Namekian race. So when they were finished here, they would continue to wipe out one village after the other around the globe, until every living being on the planet was gone.

It was the terrible decision that the AI had made months ago and that was now being executed.

The two killer Androids were levitated above the rests of the village wordlessly blowing up the small sized buildings of the village and at the same time targeting people running away from them.

Suddenly however another being appeared on the planet. It was a man, humanoid looking with black hair and dark eyes...and he was wearing a orange fighting gi.

The figure had just appeared, seemingly out of thin air, close to the village under attack. It was Instant Transmission. This too was nothing really new to the Nameks.

The newcomer moved forward with an unbelievable speed, even by the standards of the two Androids. His ki started to glow golden and his hair turned blonde. He had transformed into a SSJ.

The hundreds part of a second later he appeared in the air right next to the two attackers, before they even had the chance to react.

With one well placed kick he shattered the head one one of the Androids to pieces and nearly in the same moment he fired a ki blast from his hand that easily vaporized the other one.

"Son Goku," one of the Nameks on the ground called out as he recognized their savior from his last visit on the planet, back then as he had defeated Freezer.

The attack was over as suddenly as it had started.

"I came here to help, but as it looks they had already managed to cause a lot of damage before I arrived," Goku said.

"Indeed they did," the Namek in question answered. "But there is no telling what would have happened if you didn´t come. Thank you."

"Listen I would like to help you with the damage, but I don´t have much time. These two here are only part of a greater force that is at this moment threatening Earth. I only came here to take care of them and can not stay here any longer."

"I understand," the Namekian replied.

"Okay."

Son Goku raised his finger to his forehead and a moment later he had disappeared again.

xxxxxxx

_Earth, at the same time  
_

Nearly the entire planet was in chaos. The news about Ne-Me-Sys media announcement had spread over the world, just like he had wanted. Old information about both Cell and the original Red Ribbon Army was being dug out...and about Doctor Gero and filling the news.

There were speculations about the involvement of either Ne-Me-Sys or Doctor Gero with various terror assaults during the last decade. Ironically many of them were actually correct.

Gero and his ideas and field of work and also his membership in the Red Ribbon Army were well known in the scientific community. Only so far nobody had known about the connection between him and his Android designs and Cell...and nobody had really given any of this much thought...until now.

At the same time Ne-Me-Sys and his Android minions had started more attacks at different places around the world. Reports about the terror of both the past and of the present were being brought up nearly every hour.

And with it came the panic.

It was nearly like in the week before the Cell Games. Of course this time the people had some glimmer of hope, since they all knew that the hero Mister Satan would soon challenge the threat.

Of course they had no idea that this hope was nothing but an illusion.

Despite that however there were still mass-breakouts of unrest and panic. While most of the people of Earth were telling themselves that Mister Satan would stop this threat, nobody could tell how much destruction would happen **before** he was able to do it. At least that was what they were telling themselves.

But there was, beside the terror that Ne-Me-Sys himself, his Androids and Broly were spreading,...also another reason for the out-breaking chaos.

The humans that Ne-Me-Sys had infected with the nano-drones were now getting active..and their number had by now grown into the thousands.

They were appearing at different places all around the planet.

It began as a few dozen of this formerly normal people were suddenly showing up in North City and began to attack regular citizens.

Only hours later other groups of them appearing in multiple towns on the globe. They were appearing in crowds on the streets, they were appearing in front of installations of the Royal Army, hindering their operations, in shops, parks and random places...and everywhere they were infecting more people with the nano-drones, so that their number was growing more and more.

By now they were thousands...very soon it would be ten thousands.

At first the human authorities didn´t even realize what was going on...and didn´t made any connection between the appearance of entire flocks of aggressive, seemingly `normal´, people and the being named Ne-Me-Sys. After some time however, as more and more witnesses, including soldiers, had watched the bizarre and sometimes machine like behavior of the attackers, as they figured out what was going on.

All that this took was for a few units to literally see some of their comrades being infected and being turned. The soldiers had recounted how they had been ambushed by a group of the marauders, how they saw how something that looked like sharp metallic implanted blades had formed inside the hands of their assailants...that they had used to puncture the flesh of their comrades. And how they, less than a minute later, turned against them.

A number of the world´s leading scientists, including both Doctor and Bulma Briefs, had actually brought up the theory that Ne-Me-Sys was using some sort of nano-technology to control these people.

This was of course absolutely correct. They were just not able to do something against it so quickly...to a great part because they had no real idea how Ne-Me-Sys technology worked...

...and even if they found a counter, how were they even to use it on such a large number of people?

xxxxxxx

_Capsule Corp in West City_

The Z-fighters were preparing to act. They had two dangerous opponents. Both of them were overwhelmingly strong, both of them were merciless.

They were planning to confront both of their enemies…and that at the same time.

Should they face either Ne-Me-Sys or Broly alone, they all knew, the other would definitely sense it and probably go after them and fall them in the back. So they were trying to keep both of them occupied and bring them down separately.

The only question was who should go against who.

"I will be the one to fight Broly," Vegeta declared. "I still have a few things to settle with this so called `Legendary´ Super Sayajin. You can take care of the overgrown computer and his lapdogs."

The Saiyan Prince was right now the strongest of the Z-fighters, even if one of the main reasons for that fact was simply Son Gohan´s lack of training during the last years.

"If you think you can take him by yourself," Krillin said.

"Of course I can," he yelled at him.

"Okay okay," he replied nervously.

"Maybe you should stop talking like that to my husband," 18 spoke up.

"And if I don´t? then what?" the saiyan asked sardonically.

"You sould better be careful Vegeta," 17 cut in. "You might be a second level SSJ now, because you cheated in training with this time-chamber and the high gravity thing, but since Ne-Me-Sys had tried to control us, we have also gotten a great deal more powerful. So better don´t try to mess with my sis or with me."

The male Android was bluffing of course. Ne-Me-Sys had released part of their potential, but he had no interest to create his own worst enemies. While their strength had indeed grown, they were still not on the level of Vegeta´s SSJ2 form...at least not yet. But the others didn´t knew that for sure.

"That is enough," Piccolo raised his voice. "We have no times for this pointless arguing. If you want to fight, do it against our enemies...we have enough of them...and not each other. Bulma, are you and your father still working on a way to cure this mind controlled people that are showing up everywhere?" he asked.

"Yes," she replied, "my older self is actually helping us too. But we are still not anywhere close to finding a solution."

"Damn it," Piccolo exclaimed, "if only they hadn´t destroyed Dende´s palace. Then we could try to use the divine water to cure them. And they killed Dende..." he balled his fist in anger. The younger Namekian had been a close friend in the lives of both, himself as Piccolo and Nail, the warrior he had merged with years ago.

"We would need the Dragon Balls from Namek to bring him and our Dragon Balls back," he stated, not knowing that they did not longer exist, "but we don´t have the time to travel there when the Earth is in danger."

"Let us worry about that later," Son Gohan told them. "We should first stop the threat before we are thinking about repairing the damage."

"Gohan is right," Mirai Trunks joined the conversation. So far he had not said much...barely anything actually. "I and my mother have followed Ne-Me-Sys through time to stop him. We should do it before even more people are harmed."

"Can we go too?" the younger Trunks, who was sitting at the side of the group along with Son Goten, called out.

"No you can not," Vegeta replied loudly.

"But we are strong," Goten told him.

"Yes and completely reckless," the older saiyan responded.

"We are Super Saiyajins," younger Trunks said. "We can help."

"You two nearly got yourself killed against Broly the last time. You **won´t** get another chance for that."

"Vegeta is right," Son Gohan pointed out. "You have already proven that you can´t judge the danger for yourself and get into trouble. You will stay here."

The two children looked visible disappointed but sat back on the coach and seemed to accept the decision.

Mirai Trunks admitted he had been shocked and more than impressed as he heard that his young counterpart was already a SSJ at his age. But at the same time he also saw that their overconfident attitude could get both him and Goten killed easily.

He remembered that these two kids had in some other timelines, through the so called fusion dance, a extremely powerful fighter named Gotenks. Power like that would have been useful in their situation, but the problem was he had never seen enough of the actual technique in Ne-Me-Sys recordings that he could replicate it.

"And you insist on going alone?" Gohan asked Vegeta.

"For the last time, yes," he answered.

"I understand. Just be careful. Remember, Broly´s power never runs out," he stated.

"I know that," he responded unimpressed. "Do you really think I can not deal with this freak of nature as I am now? You better watch out that you get your own job done."

If he was completely honest, Son Gohan wasn´t that sure about Vegeta´s self confidence. From what he had sensed of it, he knew that Broly´s current level and that of the Saiyan Prince didn´t seem to be that far apart.

Yes, Vegeta seemed to be the stronger of the two. But given that he was facing an enemy who would never run out of energy, it was still an awfully risky battle.

But he also knew that there was no way of changing Vegeta´s mind.

xxxxxxx

_Satan City, the private mansion of the World Champion Mister Satan_

The `World Champion´ was in a panic like he had never been before in his life, exept maybe in the short time during the Cell Games.

But he did everything he could not to show it in front of the crowd of reporters who were standing in this moment before him.

"Don´t be afraid people of Earth," he announced loudly, "I assure you, I have defeated Cell and I will also defeat his creator. To tell you the truth… **I am glad**. Yes I am glad that this monster has finally dared to show it´s face. Do you know why? Because I Mister Satan will beat this abomination, I will crush him under my heel and free our world from him for good."

Loud cheers followed his declaration from all around him…like so often before.

His façade was nearly perfect. Nobody noticed the fact that inside the `World Champion´ was terrified.

Despite all his boasting, he had actually known that he did not have the slightest chance against Cell, not after he had truly witnessed what he could do. And if **this** being was truly the one who had created him…then he knew he was as good as dead.

After a few moments the applause finally died down. He had managed to at the very least placate the audience, like he always managed to do...at least for now.

After the last of the journalists had left, the glorious Mister Satan...for his friends and everyone who knew him in private also simply known as Mark...fell back into his armchair and let his head sink down.

For now they all were satisfied with only a few words and promises, but soon...very soon they would expect him to act...and then?

He had no longer any illusions about his chances. What should he do?

There was only a small hope left for him. He secretly hoped that the same group that had defeated Cell seven years ago would return.

xxxxxxx

At the same time the Z-fighters were on their way to another town that was under attack, not far away from Satan City...with the exception of Vegeta who was heading in the opposite direction.

A short time later they had arrived over the place. What awaited them was a scene how they had seen it sometimes in some of their old battles.

Trunks however knew them so well that he would never forget...from decades of living in his own timeline.

A trio of Androids were standing in the middle of the town and attacking the citizens, behind them buildings were standing in flames or having already collapsed under their attacks. Looking completely carelessly, they were taking seemingly random shots at citizens who were fleeing in panic and completely incinerated them. It reminded him all too much of something that the 17 and 18 of his world would do.

Only that this three here were looking less sadistically happy,...but at the same time even more uncaring and `mechanical´ than they did. For 17 and 18 this attacks had been cruel and entertaining games. This three here were looking as if they were merely completing a test that had been given to them.

These three here were only servants, it was their master who truly needed to be stopped.

What made the entire scene even more disturbing was the fact that one of the killer Androids looked like nothing more than a little boy.

Son Gohan and Android 18 reacted at the same time. Both of them moved and landed a kick on each of the two adult Androids who were just trying to take aim at another couple of innocent people and send the two killers flying in different directions.

Trunks had to admit that in this world Seventeen and Eighteen were actually with them, trying to help **stopping** this massacre here.

"Now, I see you are finally here," they heard a loud voice coming from above them.

Before them Ne-Me-Sys Android body came descending down from the roof of one of the highest buildings close by, where he had been standing...probably overseeing this entire `operation´.

"Why are you doing this?" Trunks asked him. "What is the purpose? You are winning nothing by just sending your minions out to murder people for no reason."

"Here you are wrong," the AI answered. "There are actually very good reasons. If you truly want to know, for once this attacks are serving as a good distraction for, for example, the Royal Army and other opponents and that allows my infected humans to spread further through the population."

"So it **is** you behind it," Son Gohan stated.

"Don´t act as if you didn´t already knew this," Ne-Me-Sys responded. "But it is not as if you could do anything about it...now that the place you call Kami´s Palace has been destroyed."

They all remembered the discussion they had a few hours ago about a way to cure the nano-infection.

"**How much** exactly do you know about us?" Piccolo asked him angrily.

"I know everything I need to. Remember, I have access to the same resources as Doctor Gero did and in opposite to him I had years longer and I did not broke off my surveillance out of overconfidence."

"That won´t help you," Gohan replied, "because we will take you down here and now. Krillin, Tienshinhan, Yamcha, take care of this three Androids. Try to get them out of this town. We will be dealing with **him**."

At his words, he himself, Trunks, Piccolo, Seventeen and Eighteen took fighting position in front of Ne-Me-Sys body.

"No matter how powerful you have become," Trunks told him, "you can not hope to defeat all of us."

"Oh really?" Ne-Me-Sys answered. "We will see about that."

xxxxxxx

At the same time Vegeta was still heading in the direction where he was sensing Broly´s ki energy.

The Legendary Super Saiyajin made not even any effort to hide his presence. After having blown up a human town, he was just staying at the same area...waiting.

Vegeta realized all too good what this was...it was a challenge.

As he finally arrived, he saw Broly just standing practically motionless at the edge of a mountainside...not even reacting at all to his presence.

"And there you are, just standing there and waiting. You could nearly think you were someone important," the Saiyan Prince sneered at him.

"Ah Vegeta, you are finally here. If I remember right, the last time you didn´t even have the guts to fight me until the last moment," he answered. "Now, what took you so long **this** time?"

"I think we have talked enough," Vegeta responded, trying to swallow down his anger about this blatant mockery. "Let us fight."

"I thought you would never ask."

The two incredible powerful saiyans charged at each other. Vegeta transformed into a SSJ2, while Broly ascended into his form known as Legendary SSJ state.

As this two titans clashed, the air was vibrating and the earth was trembling under their feet.

xxxxxxx

The Z-fighters were attacking Ne-Me-Sys Android form from all sides at once. His body possessed power equal to a SSJ2 and was actually stronger than Trunks and maybe even rivalled Vegeta´s

But while he was stronger than each of them individually, the combined onslaught of the two level 2 SSJ, the Android twins and the Namek was forcing him quickly in the defensive. And their attacks were causing visible damage.

If it were not for the regeneration abilities he had absorbed from the Gete Star, he might have already lost this fight.

"Do you remember how you have controlled our minds?" 18 yelled at him. "How you tried to get me to kill my own husband?" She fired a `infinity Bullet´ assault in his direction. The many smaller ki attacks were leaving visible burns and bruises on his body those defense had already been weakened.

"Look out," Trunks shouted. "Remember what I have told you about his regeneration."

Just like he had predicted, the nano-drones inside Ne-Me-Sys body were already repairing the damage their attacks had caused...and in the process it was getting even stronger...not by that much but it was noticable.

"Of course I remember Number Eighteen," he answered. "The results of that experiment were very satisfying."

"Experiment? that is my family you are talking about." The female Android was only more angered now.

"We all have different priorities Number 18," Ne-Me-Sys responded. "One of mine was actually to get you all here. You are aware that I have chosen this fighting ground, right? And here you will die now."

"What are you saying?" Trunks said.

The Z-fighters realized that someone had landed right behind them. They weren´t able to sense him, but they felt his movements in the air and they heard his feet touch the ground as the newcomer landed.

As they saw who had just arrived and recognized the figure they could only stare in shock.

Trunks had to remember the recordings he had watched from the other timelines...the events regarding the Androids. He had not thought that it would come to **this**.

xxxxxxx

_The Royal Palace_

For the members of the guard and the secretaries of the king, the last week had been just as unbelievable and shocking as for the rest of the world´s population.

But nothing what they had seen or heard of would have prepared them for this...as three figures just appeared out of nothing in the palace, right in front of the king. One of them was a relative normal looking man with spiky dark hair and wearing a orange colored fighting gi. The other two had purple and orange colored skin and their clothes, just like themselves, were completely alien looking.

The soldiers nearly automatically raised their weapons.

"Wait," the man in orange called out, "we are here to help, we just want to talk to the king."

King Furry meanwhile could only look at the man who had just appeared. His eyes seemed to be locked on his appearance. He knew him. It was one of the few faces he would never forget.

As he had seen him the first time he had just been a young boy...and he had already been extraordinary. He had watched him as he defeated King Piccolo. It was only later that he found out his name...and even after that he had heard how also beaten Piccolo´s son during the World Tournament and became Champion.

Then he had not heard from him for many years...until he had seen a mysterious young man during the Cell Games.

"Put down your weapons," he said to the guards.

"But your majesty," one of them protested.

"I know this man. He says the truth, he is here to help. Would you please let us talk alone for a few minutes."

"You mean?"

"Yes please."

Reluctantly the guards and his assistance were leaving the room. As they were alone King Furry turned around to the three visitors.

"Son Goku," he greeted the one standing in the front.

"You know my name?" he asked.

"Of course, I have watched your fight against King Picollo all those years ago and finding out your name was not hard since you had been at the World Tournament three times."

"I understand," Son Goku grinned.

"Ne-Me-Sys however had claimed that Cell had killed you. But this was obviously a lie, so I am really glad."

"Well, you see, Cell actually **did** kill me. I was allowed to come back for a day to help stopping the threats to Earth. This are the Kaioshin and Kibito. They have accompanied me and want to save this planet as well."

While he made the outlandish claim, Son Goku pointed to a place above his head. King Furry could feel his jaw nearly hit the ground as he realized that a golden halo was floating righ over Son Goku´s head. Combine that with the fact that he and his compatriots had just appeared in the room from one moment to the other.

The name Kibito said nothing to him, but he knew that Kaios were known to be legendary gods in some mythologies. So Kaioshin would mean...

"I guess I just have to believe this," he stated.

"Ahm...well...your highness, I welcome you on the planet Earth," he greeted the Kaioshin. "I don´t know, am I supposed to kneel before you or..."

The king had only a very vaque idea what being the Kaioshin actually meant. But it was enough to get an impression where he was standing in the universe.

"That won´t be necessary," he replied. "As Son Goku had said, we are here to stop the danger to your planet. For that however we want to give you a warning. Your scientists are correct that Ne-Me-Sys is using nano-technology to infect and control people, but you don´t know the sheer number that are already under his influence. I are ten thousands by now. The current attacks from his Androids are merely distractions, so that this plaque can spread further and further unnoticed."

"Your Majesty I promise you we will do everything to stop Ne-Me-Sys and every other threat out there," Son Goku told him, "but you should do everything to keep more people from getting infected."

"We have also a plane how to deal with this well `plaque´. But we have no guaranty that it will work. So you should at least try to detain it for now and keep even more people from falling under his control."

"I understand," King Furry replied. "I will do what I can."

The Kaioshin nodded.

"We will leave now. There is not much time," he stated.

"One last this," Furry said. "Son Goku, I wanted to thank you for all the things you have done for Earth and it´s people, even if many others don´t even remember them."

"Okay. We will probably not seen each other again until the afterlife when this day is over. So I will just accept your thanks."

"Son Goku, for `normal´ people like me it is good to know that there even **is** an afterlife at all," the king replied. "Tell me one thing, the one who had defeated Cell, it was not Mister Satan right? It was your son, the one they had called the delivery boy."

"Yes," Son Goku admitted after a few moments, "But I think that should stay between us, at least for now. Even if you wanted to tell the people the truth, this is certainly not the right time."

"I see what you mean," Furry replied, thinking about the panic that was reigning everywhere. This revelation would only make everything worse. And beside that, he had no proof, nothing beside the word of a dead man...and the people **wanted** to believe in Mister Satan.

"Now then, goodbye," Son Goku said. One moment later the three had disappeared again.

xxxxxxx

Vegeta was nearly in ecstasy. He had gotten the upper hand and was forcing Broly back more and more. He was clearly stronger than the so called `Legendary´ Super Saiyajin.

Soon he would have his revenge for the humiliation Broly had brought over him seven years ago.

But suddenly both of the combatants, who were concentrating nearly completely on each other, were hit by a powerful ki attack coming from the side.

As Vegeta turned around, he saw the source. There, floating in the air in some distance to them, was Ne-Me-Sys.

"What? I thought the others were meant to take care of you," he yelled.

"They are, in this moment they are fighting against me. You and your friends have only forgotten one thing, I am an Artificial Intelligence system and if I wanted I could theoretically download my mind into as many bodies as I wanted. The only problem would be the time and material to build so many." The Android grinned.

"So you are another one of the creatures who are trying to get in my way," Broly stated.

"Correction," Ne-Me-Sys stated, "I have plans for this world, You are the one who is getting in the way."

"Oh really?" Broly was breaking out into wild laughter and started throwing ki blasts at both of them. "Do you think I care about your plans," he shouted. "All I want right now is seeing both of you dead."

xxxxxxx

For the Z-fighters the situation had suddenly changed.

Until one minute ago they easily had the upper hand, but then suddenly a second version of Ne-Me-Sys Android form had appeared and now **they** were the ones being attacked from two sides.

To that came that their two opponents were loosing no energy while they, with the exception of 17 and 18, did and that they were able to repair the greatest part of the damage to their bodies.

xxxxxxx

Vegeta knew he had problems, great problems. He was facing two opponents who were both nearly as strong as he was. Both of them had a practically never ending source of energy.

But **he** had not. Sooner or later he knew he would be getting tired and that would then be his end.

The only good thing about the situation was that his opponents were just as interested in taking out each other than him. So their damage was comparible to his own. Even if the goddamn machine was continuing to repair itself, at least Broly was not longer looking really fit.

They had been shooting, punching and kicking at each other with attacks that would have wiped weaker fighters out instantly. Yet **they** were still standing.

But he was now on the brink. He knew what he had to do.

xxxxxxx

_Somewhere else_

"The Kaioshin of this universe had arrived on Earth," the being known as The Prist stated, informing his two allies who were standing at his side. "And he has brought Son Goku with him from the Afterlife."

"Son Goku?" the Android 17 from Trunks timeline said enthusiastically. "I guess that means that we will now get to see some more action. I am sick of standing at the sidelines."

"Yes, taking out this Babidi and his crew was fun, but it was just too short," his sister 18 mentioned. "By the way, do you know if Trunks will be coming with them? I would really like to see him again."

"There is a good chance that they will bring him as well," The Priest answered.

"Good," she replied with a grin.

"You two are right however," he said to them, "it is time we are getting active. Now let us beginn. Bring me the Dragon Balls," The Priest told them.

While the two Androids were getting on their way, Dende, who had in fact been `saved´ by them, just before Ne-Me-Sys had destroyed the tower, was still a prisoner inside Babidi´s fromer space ship.

xxxxxxx

Vegeta knew he could not win. He was getting weaker with every move he made. He could not run away. Even if he had been willing to just throw his pride away and do that, they would just come after him and kill him.

His two enemies were both cruel and merciless. Just like he had used to be, he thought.

They would never spare him, they would never let him get away. There was however one last thing he could do.

If he could take at least one of his two opponents out, then the others would have a slightly better chance. He begann to concentrate all his energy, to prepare one single large attack. But he knew he would have no energy left and be wide open for the remaining enemy.

He would die here.

He was looking at the two beings in front of him. Broly already had some visible injuries, but only minor. Nothing that would have truly hindered him, but he was a bit weaker than in the beginning.

Ne-Me-Sys on the other hand was using his nano-technology to repair the damage he had receive. In a few moments he would e back in his form from before the fight. And by what Trunks had told him, his power might even increase.

He had decided on his target.

"Final Flash," Vegeta shouted as he fired a giant beam of energy up into the sky. It his the Android frontal.

For a few moments he was trying to protect himself from it with his energy field, but the massive attack broke through his shield and burned itself through his body.

Vegeta watched Ne-Me-Sys Android form being turned to ashes. Too bad that it was only one of many, he thought.

He was barely able to hold himself on his legs.

Less than a second later he saw Broly´s attack coming.

xxx

Hundreds of miles away both Trunks could feel what had happened. They sensed the ki signature of their father vanish.

* * *

**Authors note: **The showdown between Vegeta, Broly and Ne-Me-Sys was partly inspired by the controntation between Trafalgar Law, Admiral Fujitora and Doflamingo in One Piece Dressrosa arc.

Vegeta, Broly, Ne-Me-Sys and Trunks are all supposed to be somewhere around SSJ2 level.

I give here a few powerlevels to compare. These have no meaning in canon or even for the course of this story.

They are just to point out where they stand compared to each other.

Trunks SSJ2: ca. 3.400 .000.000

Vegeta SSJ2: ca. 3.550 .000.000

Broly LgSSJ form: ca. 3.500 .000.000

Ne-Me-Sys Android: ca. 3.450 .000.000 (getting stronger than damaged)

Son Gohan SSJ2: 3000 .000.000


	13. Chapter 13: Last Wish

**Chapter 13**

_Satan Mansion in Satan City_

For the World Champion it was nearly as if all his prayers had been heard, when he had seen the newscast about a group of mysterious fighters who had enganged the creature called Ne-Me-Sys and his Androids at a town very close to Satan City.

Going by some of the few transmissions that had been able to be send from the place, these people were able to fly and shoot something that looked like energy beams from their hands, just like the Androids.

And some of them had glowing blonde hair.

It was **them**. There was no doubt about it for him. They would stop them, just like the last time, he thought. They would put things right and everything would return to how it had been before.

But only a short time later he was receiving a shock as he heard another message a short time later that they were retreating.

Retreating, they had lost, it shot through his head.

He could not believe it. That meant the people would now come to him very quickly. They would ask him to defeat this enemies, to save them…and then…he would die.

He would be send out to fight and stop the menace by himself...and he had no chance, no chance in the world.

Mister Satan felt as if everything was collapsing around him. All what he could do now... was to pray.

xxxxxxx

At the same time in the city close by, the group known as the Z-fighters had begun to fall back.

In the moment the second version of Ne-Me-Sys Android form had appeared, the tight of the battle had turned around...against them.

With now two Androids who matched or even surpassed a SSJ2 in power, their chances had become significantly worse.

And now? Gohan, who had barely trained during the last years would not be able to hold the second level for much longer and Trunks was also beginning to run out of energy by now.

The only ones under them who could still fight at full strength were 17 and 18. But with their current power they were still no match for this opponent.

They were loosing. There was no denying this anymore...and now they had begun to fall back.

Gohan was hit by a powerful ki-blast that knocked him out of the air. But Piccolo dived down and dragged his old pupil to safety.

The withdrawel, that was in the beginning slow and coordinated, became now more and more hectic.

xxx

The three `weaker´ fighters of their group, that means in this case the three humans, every of them still a master of martial arts and ki control and a power that could obliterate a planet, but ultimately no match for the Super Saiyajin or Androids,

the three who were set to deal with Ne-Me-Sys Android minions, were so far in a slightly better position. They were still holding herself against their opponents. Of course they had the problem too that they were loosing energy while their enemies were not.

But with the loss of the other group, they as well would have ultimatically failed.

The first of their group had just notivced what was going on.

"Krillin, Yamchu," Tienshinhan called out to get their attention and pointed in the direction where the other part of their team had been struggling with Ne-Me-Sys.

They now saw all what was happening while they were still engaging their own opponents...they could barely belive it as they saw the others now fighting two identical enemies.

In this moment they also heard Trunks calling out to them.

"Krillin, Tienshinhan, we have to retreat," he shouted.

xxx

Krillin had just for a few moments gotten the upper hand over the Cyborg he had been fighting as they realized the full situation.

The Android that he had just slammed into the ground however was by no means disabled or out of the fight.

It was the smallest out of them.

The one he was fighting was the Android created from the body of a child.

Krillin saw how his opponent was getting back up and saw him in the eyes...and for a short moment, he hesitated.

The Android however...didn´t. In the small opening that his adversary gave him, he used the chance and fired.

A concentrated ki blast hit the Z-fighter square. The energy had burned his shoulder and parts of his left arm. In opposite to Gohan, he was still able to hold himself in the air, even if he was clearly more injured.

But exactly that would turn out to be his misfortune.

xxx

The Z-fighters were now flying away with as much speed as was possible while they were still in the towns area.

17 and 18, who still had their full strength, had taken the job to hold back the two incarnations of Ne-Me-Sys they were fighting, by constantly sending ki attacks back at them while their entire group was quickly moving out of the city.

Piccolo was still carrying the injured Gohan

It was in this moment that Eighteen saw what was happening.

One of the two versions of Ne-Me-Sys had noticed Krillin hanging in the air after the last attack had hit him and decided to take advantage of his situation. He took aim and fired at the injured Z-fighter.

"No," 18 called out as she saw her husband being hit and falling out of the sky. He had already been seriously hurt before, she knew. There was no way he could still defend himself. In his state there was a good chance that he might...

Then, split seconds later, a second ki blast was fired and hit Tienshinhan. To the Z-fighters horror, they saw how the attack ripped right through his chest...and how he fell down with a silent scream.

Their friend was dead.

Eighteen was kneeling down next to her fallen husband. He seemed to be barely conscious and was not able to move. It was bad...more than bad.

A few seconds later she realized in horror and anguish that it was over, Krillin was not moving anymore. Her husband was dead, murdered...and the Dragon Balls were gone. That meant they could not even bring him back.

For a few moments, she only felt emptiness. Then she could feel the tears flowing down her cheeks and saw them falling to the ground before her. As long as she could remember, she never thought she had shown her emotions so openly.

Then another second later, her grieve turned into anger.

She looked at the incarnation of Ne-Me-Sys that had just killed her husband and unleashed in a fury an onslaught of smaller ki attacks in form of Infinity Bullet on him.

But with that she also made herself a target.

"Eighteen, what are you doing?" Seventeen called out as he saw this.

The Android she was attacking had been hit by the first volley and blown backwards by some distance. But he had also seen **who** was attacking him and now took aim at her himself. But 18 seemed to be blind for anything beside landing hits on her opponent and taking her vengeance.

Ne-Me-Sys fired. The blast that he send at her was powerful enough to level an entire city and would be able to at least do serious damage to her. She saw it coming, but before her distraught mind fully registered it, it was already too late to avoid the shot.

But 17, on the other hand, was ready. He jumped at her in the last moment and pushed both of them out of the way.

The blast that had just missed them however now hit right in the middle of the remains of one of the districts of the already devastated town...and killing even more people in the process.

"18, we have to leave," 17 told her.

"I will get this bastard for what he has done," she shouted.

"Yes you will," he answered, "but not now. Believe me, even I would not continue **this** fight. At least not as long as everybody else is getting weaker every second."

xxx

It was happening again, Trunks thought. The images were shooting through his mind. The memories were all coming back to him again.

First his father Vegeta, Gohan, then Krillin and Tienshinhan. One by one the Z-fighters were falling. Just like it had been in his world. This was his worst nightmare that has returned. He could see it all happening all over again...the destruction, the massacres.

It wasn´t quite like before. This time, in this world, 17 and 18 were actually on their side, fighting with them.

And it was still not enough.

During 18´s last assault, the rest of their group had moved a bit further, but then came quickly to an halt. They saw the situation she and her brother were in now and would not leave them behind.

They were now giving them cover-fire just like Seventeen and Eighteen had done it for them just a minute ago.

xxxxxxx

Meanwhile the group consisting of the Kaioshin, Kibito and Son Goku was following their own mission.

And now their number had grown by one.

In front of them was lying the damaged and injured form of nobody else than Vegeta.

Goku remembered how he had felt the energy of his friend weakening and interferred literally in the last moment.

xxx

_5 Minutes earlier_

He had spend nearly all what was left of his energy for the last attack.

Now he was an easy target for the insane SSJ. Vegeta knew it was over.

The so called Legendary SSJ had charged him nearly instantly and first landed a hard uppercut on him. Then he blasted him with a powerful beam of ki energy. This shot had been enough to obliterate multiple cities, had it not been send directly at his body.

Vegeta tried to get control over his still flying body and managed to come to an halt in mid-air. He was trying to focus, to concentrate and bring out what was left of his strength. So that he at least had a chance to fight back. But it was already too late.

He saw how Broly was ramming into him at full speed...and moments later he felt the impact.

The Saiyan Prince was slammed with incredible force into the rock formation close to them. His body broke through the outer layers of stone and burried itself nearly a meter deep into the mountain.

Broly was only laughing manically.

"I guess I should actually thank you since you have taken care of this `other problem´ for me," he exclaimed, refering to Vegeta´s attack that had destroyed Ne-Me-Sys other Android form. Of course the saiyan didn´t know that it was only one incarnation of, so far, three.

"So thanks...and now goodbye Vegeta," he shouted and fired two green shimmering globes of energy at his opponent. It was one of his simpler techniques, but still enough to blow up a planet if it´s used with full power.

But just before the shots could reach the Saiyan Prince, a figure appeared out of thin air in between them and swapped the two energy globes aside with quick movements.

As Broly realized who it was, even he was frozen in shock for a moment. The fighter who was standing before him was in the second SSJ state, just like Vegeta had been a minute before.

"Kakarot, and here I was told you were dead," he said grinning. "You have no idea how happy I am to see you."

"I am dead," Goku replied. "I came just back from the Afterlife...for you," he stated. In truth **he** was by far not the reason for his presence. But Son Goku saw no point in telling the insane saiyan this.

"Really? So I guess that means I should feel honored, right?" Broly asked sardonically. "You know something? I will send you right back there."

He send out another attack, this time in the direction of Son Goku. But the other Super Saiyajin easily deflected the blast.

Just like Broly, Vegeta who was just coming back to his senses, could also barely belief what he was seeing. In opposite to the LSSJ, he actually knew about the possibility to return from the Afterlife for long. But he had never thought to see Kakarot again after all this time.

Broly on the other hand seemed to take this revelation about death and the Afterlife with the singleminded obsession of a true lunatic. With other words, it didn´t even mattered to him as long as Kakarot was here.

Whatever, he should be happy that he showed up, Vegeta realized...as much as he hated the idea of needing help. Normally he would rather die than letting Son Goku rescue him. But in this situation, with **two** monsters out there who were about to destroy the planet...he would let it slide...this time.

That were his last thoughts before he passed out.

Meanwhile Broly was just standing there, starring at his old enemy with a wild look...not moving at all. But they both knew this would only last for a short time. The saiyan was like a seething vulcano, waiting to break out.

"You think that being `dead´ will change anything? You think you can match me now?" he roared. "I will crush you. I will make you pay for what you have done to me."

"Bring it on Broly," Goku yelled at him. He lifted off the ground and flew upwards. Just like Vegeta before, he was still in level 2.

The other SSJ followed him. He was charging at him in full speed up in the sky, still in his `Legendary´ form. Kakarot was waiting for him.

But moments before he reached him, he was faced with a surprise.

Son Goku transformed again. He had turned into a SSJ3.

Before he even had a chance to react to this sudden change, his opponent Goku had already landed a incredible fast and unbelievable hard punch directly into his guts.

Broly doubled over in pain. He could barely move. This could not be. It had only been one punch.

He could not believe it. Nobody could be that powerful...it was impossible. He was meant to be the strongest. But Kakarot´s new power was...it was so far above his own that he could barely grasp it.

He had not anymore time to recapitulate all this, because Son Goku now fired a ki blast at him from short distance...with one hand. Still the force was more than enough to send him flying backwards and away from the fighting place.

**"Kakarot."** Screaming out that name was all he still could do.

Son Goku watched Broly flying helplessly a distance of kilometers..and then saw him crashing into a wooded area several miles away.

He knew that he was still alive...wounded and damaged, but living. The damage he had caused should be enough to take out even Broly for a longer time.

But he was alive...just like intended.

Goku knew it would probably been better if he had ended this once and for all. He remembered what Broly had caused when he was still alive. An entire galaxy had been devastated.

But the Kaioshin had especially warned him not to kill anyone as long as he was in the world of the living. As he claimed, it would destabilize this universe and possible endanger the entire cosmos...even more as it already was through the presence of this mysterious intruder.

And that it might actually help their new foe.

Goku had a feeling that the Kaioshin seemed to know more about this stranger than he let on or that he at least had a suspicion. But he would ask him later.

He completely trusted him however when he told him that the energy of this being was terrifying and absolutely malicious. They knew that he had already kidnapped Dende and was holding him captive...and he had gotten his hands on the Dragon Balls.

Not to mention that according to the Kaioshin, `the structure of their universe had been damaged by his activities since his arrival."

As it looked like Broly and even Ne-Me-Sys were the smaller problem. The others would have to deal with him later...after he and the Kaioshin would have helped them to get in the position to do that.

Goku turned to Vegeta and lifted him up. One moment later both of them had disappeared.

xxx

_Now_

Vegeta was slowly waking up. But Son Goku had no real time to deal with that. In the far distance he could still feel the battle going on...that by now seemed to have turned against him.

Then he felt the energy signatures going out. First Krillin´s, his best friend, then Tienshinhan, while he was saving Vegeta the others were getting killed.

"Son Goku," the Kaioshin addressed him, who was obviously guessing what was going through his head.

"I have to save the others," he said.

"Do that," he replied. "But please hurry up. You know, there is someone out there who is much more dangerous than these beings."

And not even with them he would be able to deal by himself, he thought silently. The energy level he had felt from the super-saiyan named Broly terrified him, he admitted to himself. And the AI called Ne-Me-Sys was at least as powerful.

Broly, Ne-Me-Sys, he had no chance against this creatures...and this mysterious stranger, by what he had felt of his signature, was even far higher above him. He was completely depending on Son Goku and his team of mortal friends to even have a chance at all.

What kind of god was he? the Kaioshin thought depressed. He felt helpless and weak, just like when he had faced the Demon Buu all those years ago.

xxxxxxx

Half a globe away, two other beings were meanwhile being occupied with their own business.

They were Androids Number 17 and 18, however not the same ones that were assisting the Z-fighters.

This were the versions of them that came from Mirai Trunks world. With them they were carrying something that was normally considered one of the greatest treasures on the planet Earth, the Seven Dragon Balls.

"Are you still brooding about this Seventeen?" his sister asked him.

"I am not quite sure what to think about this," he admitted.

"So far things are actually quite well aren´t they?" 18 stated.

"I still can´t help but wonder if we have just gotten ourselves a new master," 17 replied. "You know, we have the Dragon Balls right here." He lifted up one of the golden globes he was carrying with his left hand. "We could just use them for ourselves," he suggested.

"And **he** would kill us for it," 18 answered. "You have to admit, so far this guy has been quite cooperative. For the most part he let us do whatever we want...of course as long as we follow his plan. But he has especially warned us not to betray him. By the way, you have yourself mentioned that you find him interesting."

"I know that. And yes, he **is** interesting. The things he is capable of and that he is planning are...fun, in a way even I had never thought possible."

"Yes indeed," she said...and grinned.

"I just can not stand the thought of someone being above us," 17 commented. "We should be on top."

"Like we had been with Trunks you mean?" she remarked. "We were so convinced that he could never catch up with us...and how did it turn out? Our overconfidence had cost us everything.

"Let us not talk about it," he responded. "It is true that it is in our own best interest to work with him, at least for the moment."

"At least in comparison to the old Gero, he has a sense of fun," 18 pointed out. "You have admit, wiping out this spaceship was great. Killing these guys was something else."

"Yes and at least the red guy with the horns and the big ears put up a real fight." 17 laughed. "And then kidnapping this short Namek that everyone calls god," he said, "just before Ne-Me-Sys had blown everything up...and I remember the face of that black creature, right before you killed him 18. That was just wonderful. What was his name again? Mister Popo or something?"

"Yes, just like back in our world when we had blown up that `palace´ ourself," Eighteen responded. "But this time they actually thought we were their friends can you imagine that?" She joined him in laughter. "Mister Popo, that name alone was reason enough to kill him."

"Yes, this alternates of us must really be malfunctioning if they hang out with people like that," he stated.

"It seems so," she remarked. "So we agree not to do anything that goes against our new ally?...for the moment."

"We do," he said, "especially since we haven´t yet reached the full power that he had promised us. But there is one thing...we really should talk to him about this god he is serving."

xxxxxxx

Ne-Me-Sys two Android forms were still hunting down the fleeing Z-fighters. He had no intention to allow even one of them to leave.

His past research had told him all too much about their ability to improve and start counterattacks. He would not let them have this chance.

But before he could take aim and target the next Z-fighter, someone appeared through Instant Transmission, someone whose presence changed absolutely everything.

It was Son Goku...who was dead in this world. His surveillance data confirmed this.

Yes, he was **indeed** dead, the AI realized. His vital and energy readings...and especially the golden halo floating over his head...made this completely clear.

He had seen this phenomenon as well in his collected data...return from death for limited time.

"Son Goku," Piccolo called out as he saw him. The others followed his gaze and noticed him with great surprise.

Goku," Trunks said in complete disbelieve as he saw him.

Their enemy was looking straight at the newcomer, in opposite to them with cold calculation.

"Son Goku," he greeted him.

"Ne-Me-Sys," he responded. I have heard much about you."

"I see you are back...for one day," he added.

"Yes. I am here to help the others to stop you."

"One day will not be enough for that. Just like the others you will fail."

"We will see about that." With this words he teleported again and reappeared right next to Piccolo, Gohan and Trunks.

"Get a hold on me," he told them.

They all did what he said and grabbed his shoulders or arms. Then the entire group had suddenly vanished again standing and was now standing right next to 17 and 18.

"Come," Goku said to them.

Then, one moment later, they were all gone. Not even Ne-Me-Sys was able to stop them.

He saw the place where his enemies had disappeared. Now the AI was calculating his best next course of action.

He knew, going by the data he had collected from the other timelines, how powerful Son Goku should probably be at this point. The other Z-fighters were beaten and broken, but with him they had actually a chance to stop him.

But Son Goku had only one day. So he would just retreat for the moment and wait until his time limit was over.

xxxxxxx

"Ka...Kakarot, where is he?" Vegeta was just returning to consciousness.

Before him he could see two strange figures with unusual skin colors and clothes and pointed ears. For a short moment he thought he was dead again. But as he looked around it didn´t look like the Afterlife.

"He is gone to assist the others," one of the two beings told him.

"And who in the world are you?" Vegeta growled.

"That is the question," the being replied. "I am the Kaioshin."

"He is the highest of the gods, so show a bit respect," Kibito told him.

"I show respect to the ones who have done something to earn it," Vegeta responded. "I don´t remember ever meeting you two before and you have done nothing for me."

"Kibito it is enough," the Kaioshin said. "I don´t expect him to respect me just because of my title." Especially not since he is stronger than me, he thought.

"And about that, Kibito here has just healed your injuries and we have brought Son Goku here who is now saving your friends."

"Well okay...thanks for that," Vegeta replied grimly.

Suddenly Son Goku and the others appeared next to them...and collapsed right afterwards. Most of the surviving Z-fighters were tired and worn out...or in Gohan´s case even injured.

"Father, I can not believe it," he said, as he now had fully recognized him.

"I am happy to see you again Gohan," Goku told him.

"Father," Trunks exclaimed as he saw Vegeta sitting a few meters from him.

"I sensed his fight with Broly and as I felt his energy running out, I interfered to save him," Son Goku explained.

"But you did not save Krillin," 18 said harshly, "...or Tienshinhan."

"I am sorry. I had just rescued Vegeta as **it** happened. I could not react fast enough."

Son Goku was not surprised to see the two Androids with his friends...at least not now. The Kaios had already been watching the events on Earth for some time now...since the intruder appeared. They also kept an eye on the Z-fighters. So he already knew about the relationship between his oldest friend and the Android.

His reaction as Master Kaio had first told him was of course completely different and he had nearly hit the ground from surprise.

"**I** am sorry," 18 responded, "I shouldn´t blame you. You have saved the rest of us. It is just..." 17 laid his arm around her, trying to console her.

"There are still the Dragon Balls on Namek," Gohan reminded her, "we can..."

"Sorry if I have to tell you this Son Gohan," the Kaioshin interrupted him, "but the Dragon Balls on Namek do not longer exist. Ne-Me-Sys had already send out a team of his Androids to attack the planet and to kill every living being."

"What?" Piccolo shouted as he heard this.

"Son Goku has managed to stop them. But at that point they had already killed the Grand Elder and the Dragon Balls were gone."

The Kaioshin could now see the absolute desperation in all their faces.

"But there is also something else you have to know," he continued, "the Dragon Balls of this planet still exist and your friend Dende is not dead."

"What do you say?" Piccolo asked now. "How?"

At his question Goku´s face became more earnest.

"I wish I could say I am just here to see you all, but it is not. We have a serious problem."

"You are here to help us against Ne-Me-Sys...and Broly?" Vegeta questioned.

"No, there is someone even more dangerous...far more."

"It was several days ago that me and the other Kaios had noticed something," the Kaioshin spoke up now. "Someone, a being has entered our universe. This being has a power of a sort that you have never seen before...that you can not imagine...neither could I," he admitted.

"It is filled with unbelievable and incredible malicious energy, divine energy like I myself possess it and that can not be detected by regular beings. But his is many times great than I have ever felt it before."

"That would explain why we have not sensed this being then," Gohan stated.

"It is even worse," the Kaioshin continued, "since this stranger has arrived, he is somehow using his ki to directly disturb the balance of this universe. And now he has the Dragon Balls."

"So? We will get them back," Vegeta announced.

"You have no idea how powerful this enemy is," Kibito told him.

"Is he? In that case I am in."

"Forget it," Goku said, "you are just exciting him."

"If the Dragon Balls still exist, then there is still a chance to get Krillin back," 18 stated. "I am going."

"If she goes, so am I," 17 responded.

"I am coming with you as well," Trunks said.

"Father," Gohan addressed him, "I know the time is not exactly ideal, but I have to tell you...I have a brother. Mom was pregnant after the Cell Games...and if you truly have just one day you truly have to at least meet him,,,and Mom would be dieing to see you again too."

"Believe me Gohan, I will...when this here is over. But now we have to stop him. This creature can not be allowed to use the Dragon Balls."

"Goku is absolutely right," Kaioshin told them. "We have to act now. After Kibito has healed you all."

xxxxxxx

A few minutes later, the entire group appeared thousands of miles away, right next to Babidi´s now destroyed space-ship that was nearly completely burried in the underground.

"I don´t believe it," Kibito exclaimed as he recognized the design of the still visible entrance.

"What is it?" Goku asked.

"I think that is the ship of the Wizard Babidi. We have been looking for it for some time before this new enemy appeared," the Kaioshin answered.

"Who is that?"

"That is not really important anymore...It seems Babidi and his men are not longer alive anymore," he explained as he had sensed the entire burried vessel for life signs."

That might not be good, he thought. If Babidi and his entire crew were dead, what had happened with Buu? Did **he** have him?

"But that is not our problem right now, we need to find the creature we are looking for. There," he said..and pointed to a position quite close to the ship, right behind a rock formation that blocked their direct sight.

Right behind it he could feel a terrible energy. If he was honest the Kaioshin was actually afraid to cross this small distance.

xxx

Seconds later, as they had all flown over this small hindrance, they were confronted with a sight that shocked them all.

For the Kaioshin it was the appearance of a completely black cloaked, humanoid individual. His face was covered behind a mask. The mask had the ressemblance of a snake like demon.

And right before him were lying assembled all seven Dragon Balls.

It was him who radiated the terrible energy he felt before. But now, as he was actually standing before him he had a far better grasp of what this power actually was like.

He had never felt something like this since Beerus the God of Destruction...and even his energy never felt this dark, so absolutely evil. It was nearly as if this was not a living being but a hole in the universe...that consumed all light.

For the Z-fighters, who were not able to feel any of that, the shock was more in form of the two beings who were standing right next to him.

The 17 and 18 from this time were completely flabbergasted to be looking at themselves.

And there, somewhat on the side, away from his captors, was Dende, shackled to a large rock with something like chains that looked as if they were made from pure energy.

"It seems we have guests," the cloaked individual said with a sinister voice that was distorted by the mask he was wearing. "Seventeen, Eighteen, could you please deal with them. I have something to do."

"I thought you would never asked," Mirai 17 responded.

They moved right in front of the Z-fighters, with speed far greater than a normal human´s eyes could follow.

"You," Trunks said in a cold and hollow voice.

"What is Trunks, are you not happy to see us?" 18 asked him and gave him an `inviting´ smile.

"Really, what is with you sis? In last time, whenever you see him, you just start flirting with him?" 17 questioned.

"Oh, I guess our `little Trunks´ has just started to become interesting to me." She grinned.

Except maybe a few short moments of bewilderment, none of the Z-fighters were paying much attention to their exchange.

"You came," Dende exclaimed happily.

"Get out of the way or I will just kill you again," Trunks addressed the two Androids with a growl. "We have no time for the likes of you."

He, Son Goku, Vegeta and Gohan had now all transformed into the SSJ2 stage. The Androids had not the slightest chance.

"Oh really?" 17 asked mockingly. He turned his head and looked directly at their now ally.

Without a word `The Priest´ raised his hand and suddenly the two Cyborgs were surrounded by a black aura. The Kaioshin felt the change in them instantly.

"Look out," he shouted.

17 moved forward punched Vegeta hard into his stomach. He moved faster than the saiyajin had thought possible and caught him off guard. Then he landed a kick on Gohan´s chin and send him flying back.

18 meanwhile attacked Trunks and landed a punch that he tried to evade and that only hit his shoulder. Then she engaged Goku.

Of course all that was only a distraction.

While they were fighting, The Priest recited the formula to activated the Dragon Balls and call the Dragon. The sky above them became dark.

"No," the Kaioshin shouted.

The local versions of Seventeen and Eighteen, just like Piccolo tried to interfere, but they as well were stopped. The robed figure waved his hand and send a shockwave at them that forced them to stop and block it.

Seconds later Shenlong appeared.

"You have collected all seven Dragon Balls," he said. "I will fulfill two wishes for you. Tell me, what is your wish?"

"Wait, Shenlong..." Gohan called out. But before he could say anything else 17 charged him again and forced him to block his attack.

Trunks and Vegeta were in a similar situation with Goku. The power the two Androids had right now surpassed their own actual strength by far, even after the training they had received by their ally. Still the power The Priest had so simply provided them with was astonishing. What they didn´t knew was that this was only a small fraction of what he could do.

"Shenlong," he said, "first I want you to restore this two Androids called 17 and 18 completely to life."

"That is a bit difficult," the Dragon stated, "this two are not from this time and there they had already been dead for years."

"Yes, but they are already here, with restore bodies and souls placed into them. So the greatest part of your work is already done," the Priest insisted. "The rest should not be too hard for you right?" The danger in his voice was more than obvious as he said this.

"Your wish has been fulfilled," Shenlong finally said.

Mirai 17 and 18, who were still engaging the Z-fighters, were both laughing as they heard this.

"Enough," Son Goku shouted. He transformed into a SSJ3 and moved with his full speed right between the two Androids...and with a giant outburst of energy he send them flying into two different directions. Even the power they had borrowed could not shield them from this.

"Shen Long listen to us," Piccolo yelled.

The Z-fighters, not longer distracted by their two opponents, were now ready to interfere. All they had to do was make a wish before their enemy could.

But right then The Priest send out another shockwave, several times stronger then the last, that send them all to their knees. Only Son Goku was left standing.

But that didn´t help him. Split seconds later the cloaked figure appeared in the air right above him. He moved with a speed that even he as a SSJ3 could not follow and landed a murderous hit on him that send him crashing into the ground and nearly knocked him out.

Then he moved to the rest. With completely impossible strength and speed he moved to everyone of the still disoriented Z-Fighters and knocked every single one of them out with a single hit. Less than a second later it was over.

"Now where have we been?" The Priest asked then.

"Shenlong, listen to me," the Kaioshin called out. He was the last who was still left. Now he was alone.

But before he could finish his sentence, he was hit by a concentrated beam of energy that burned through his flesh and pierced through his entire body. He coughed up blood.

He knew he was seriously wounded and would probably not made it without help. But even that didn´t matter right now.

This creature could crush him whenever he wanted. They never had a chance against this opponent, he understood that now.

"Poor Kaioshin," the robed being addressed him, "so helpless, like so many people under your so called rule had been...so **useless**. Tell me, does it hurt to realize how completely inept you truly are?"

"Who...are...?"

"Oh, have you still not figured it out. Or do you simply not **want** to realize it."

There was something he had thought of, he admitted to himself...but only for a few moments...It just couldn´t be.

**He**, here, just so much like the old descriptions...It was just an old legend that he had heard in his youth, when the other Kaioshins had still be alive...long before Buu had slaughtered them all. But it was only a myth...or so he had thought.

"Yes, my little **weak** Kaioshin," his opponent stated, "it is just like you think. I can see it in your thoughts...just like an open book. I **am** what you believe. The time has come. Soon the Nameless God will return...I am here to prepare his return...and your universe, all your universes will burn. And you can die along with the rest of your wretched kind."

He used his foot to press the face of the Kaioshin down into the mud.

Then he turned his face back to Shenlong.

Around him the Z-fighters that he had beaten down were just coming back to their senses. A few seemed to already be awake again. He had allowed himself to be distracted by this insect, he realized.

But it was too late for them anyway.

"Shenlong," he said, "my second wish is this. I want you to resurrect everyone who had died of unnatural causes during the last year in this entire galaxy...and then I want them to die again one second later."

Son Gohan, 17, 18 and Trunks who had just regained consciousness, just like the Kaioshin, could only stare in horror at the completely insane wish their enemy had just made.

Everyone who had died in the entire galaxy for one year. There was was no telling how many millions, possibly billions, that might be. Their opponent had just asked Shenlong to commit mass genocide on an untold scale. Why even resurrecting all these people just to let them die a moment later? What in the world could he win by that?

_A Dark Priest,_ the Kaioshin thought, _he had to be._

Mirai Seventeen, who was still kneeling on the edge of the battlefield was only laughing loud as he heard the crazy wish.

"Shenlong wait," they heard another voice calling out. It was Son Goku. "Don´t do this. Please listen to wish is for you to restore God´s Palace, so that we can use the Devine Water to cure Ne-Me-Sys Nano plaque and save this planet. That is **our** wish.

I know you are supposed to fulfill **every** wish that is made to you," Goku stated. "But I **beg** of you, don´t let him use you for something like this. The Dragon Balls were made to help the people, not to hurt or terrorize them, isn´t that true?"

Shenlong, for a short time wasn´t moving, wasn´t saying anything. It was nearly as if he hesitated...as if he was unsure...as if he was thinking.

Then his voice filled the air.

"Your wish has been fulfilled."


	14. Chapter 14: The Plan

**Chapter 14**

_"Your wish has been fulfilled."_

Shenlong´s words were to hear for everyone. The only question was which wish was it...

...the one from the black-robed man they were fighting against or the one of Son Goku? For all of them, this question would mean the difference between life and death.

They did not even knew or could imagine why their current opponent had even uttered a wish like that. None of them except maybe for the Kaioshin.

_Chaos, that was the very thing that the Dark Priests excelled in... what they existed for,_ he remembered the old stories.

Stories...old legends...that was all what this had been to him, until today.

This one Priest had already been trying to destabilize this universe itself since he had arrived here. That here was probably an attempt on a even greater scale.

But the Z-fighters next to him had right now other thoughts on their minds. Right now Shenlong´s decision would decide about life or death for all of them.

"I fulfilled **your** wish Son Goku," the Dragon announced now, making clear what he has done.

For the assembled Z-fighters and the Kaioshin it was nothing else but salvation. They knew now they still had a chance.

"**Yes**," Gohan called out.

"We have done it," Trunks said.

"Thank you Shenlong," Gohan told him.

The dragon now vanished and the Dragon Balls were once again scattered over the entire world.

Their joy at this outcome was intense...and it lasted only a few moments.

It had just come to their minds that their enemy might not exactly react too kindly about this failure. Whatever motivation he might had for making an insane wish like that in the first place, they had just ruined it.

And this opponent had already proven that he was far stronger than them...and that he was willing and able to take them all out easily if he wanted.

Now they would have to face his wrath...and try to survive.

To their complete surprise however, the robed figure was just standing there, motionless...and then they actually heard a hollow sounding laughter coming from him.

"I see," he stated. "So the `Great´ Dragon is not so completely impartial after all." He said this words in a seemingly casual tone. "Interesting."

His voice sounded completely relaxed. It was nearly as if he didn´t care that much at all that his plan...whatever he had wanted to achieve... had just been twarted. Only, if at all, curiosity about the dragon´s behavior.

"It is not that it mattered," The Priest declared. "This here was only a minor detail...a idea you could say...Now it is a minor setback...It will not make a difference in the greater scheme of things. You should not think that you have won anything here," he said to them.

His spectators...the Z-fighters...were both astonished and somewhat disturbed by what he said. As it looked he didn´t found his failure here...to accomplish whatever he wanted...as anything grave.

Somehow this **didn´t** exactly serve to calm them down. It meant that he had even more in store. Still they knew if he should decide to continue the fight here and now, there was very little they could do.

They had no chance at all. What kind of being was that? they all asked themselves the question. He had a power like they had never faced before...like they could not have imagined.

"Seventeen, Eighteen," their opponent addressed his two allies, "we are finished here, aren´t we? Let us go...for now," he added.

"Shouldn´t we just kill them if we are already here?" 17 asked, pointing at Trunks and the others.

"I have still interest to keep them alive," The Priest responded, "as I said...for now. But if you want to try to kill them on your own...feel free to do that. I don´t give you any orders...we are **allies** after all.

And by the way, killing them now, when they have no chance at all...where is the fun in that?" he said in his hollow voice behind the mask.

The hidden challenge in what he just said was easy to hear out.

Both of them knew perfectly well that 17 and 18 were not powerful enough to kill these Z-fighters here by themselves...not yet. Yet if he wanted to try...and quite possibly get himself killed...he would not stop him.

But he would not save him either if he failed, what was very likely to happen.

Mirai 17 just shrugged with his shoulders.

"As you said...where is the fun in that?" the Android repeated the Priest´s words from earlier.

He turned around, as if preparing to leave. But at the same time he had another thought. A wicked grin formed on his face.

Suddenly, with his superhuman reflexes, he raised up his arm, formed a ki-blast and fired...directly at the still chained up Dende a few meters next to them.

The already damaged Z-fighters had not even a chance to react and could only watch as their friend was hit and the thin energy beam pierced right through his body...and caused the large rock he was shackled to to explode into rubble.

Then he sank down, lifeless.

"No," someone shouted.

"Dende," Gohan called out.

They were all starring at what the Android from the other timeline had just done...at the dead body of the young Namek who had become a friend to all of them.

It came nearly instantly their minds what this meant, what the consequences of this single action were. With the Guardian of Earth dead...now truly dead, the Dragon Balls would now never return...and the ones from Namek were lost too.

Krillin, Tienshinhan, Popo and Dende himself, they were lost forever...as were all the other people who had been killed during the last weeks. They were all lost.

With just one single move this Android from an alternate future had doomed them all.

And now he and his sister were laughing.

"You...17," Trunks shouted. "I swear you will pay for this you bastard."

He didn´t hold back anymore. First the Z-fighters from his world... his father...then Gohan...all these other people...and now **this**. All because of them.

With an angry cry he powered up and charged directly at his old enemies.

He was in his SSJ2 form, but far from in good shape or at full strength. So 17 wasn´t being completely overpowered instantly.

Yes the two Future Androids had become more powerful under the tutorlage of the being known as The Priest, but it was still not enough to match a level 2 Supersaiyan, even a weakened one.

And after the last fight 17 was not longer in perfect shape either. While he never lost energy, his body still took damage.

He managed to block the first strike...barely though.

Before anything else could happen however, their fight got interrupted.

The Priest had moved and was now levitating right next to them. He grabbed Trunks arm, faster than he could even see , just as he was trying to land another punch... and held it in place. Despite all his remaining strength, the SSJ couldn´t move his limb even one centimeter.

"I think that is enough," The robed figure stated.

With nothing more than a flinch of his wrist, he pushed Trunks away. The saiyan crashed into the ground a few meters from him and 17.

He could barely believe it. Just how strong was this guy? How was this possible?

"As you have probably figured out, I have chosen to leave you all alive...at least for now," the Priest declared. His comment that he would leave them alive somehow sounded nearly as menacing as death threats from anybody else. "You could say I have a special interest in your group," he said, looking down at Trunks. "I hope you won´t disappoint my expectations."

"Who are you?" the half-saiyan asked him.

"That...you will find out soon enough," he responded. "But if you are that curious, maybe you should ask the Kayoshin. I am sure he has an interesting story to tell you."

Trunks gaze...just as of the most of the others...was turning to the now terrified looking divine purple skinned alien.

"I think it is time for us to leave now," The Priest announced. "Or what do you think?" he addressed the two future Androids.

"Yes, let us go," 17 answered.

"It was fun afterall I admit," Mirai 18 stated. "This Dragon was a sight you don´t get to see every day...and their faces...especially when 17 killed the little green guy." She started to shuckle once again.

Trunks was looking up to her in pure anger. She however also turned her gaze to him.

"Now...bye Trunks," she called out to him grinning and actually blew him a kiss with her hand.

All three of them lifted up into the air and left the Z-fighters behind. Seconds later they were out of sight.

Trunks, still lying on the ground, was now turning around towards his allies and friends.

The expression on all their faces was all too easy to interpret. They had been defeated. Not only defeated, crushed.

The only reason any of them were even still alive was that this opponent didn´t seemed to have an interest in killing them...at least right yet.

It was nearly as with their first fight with the 17 and 18 of the past these years ago. Only that this guy would certainly not turn into an ally anywhere in the future.

The only one whose face still showed some confidence was Goku.

His father Vegeta was another matter. On his face the despression was mixed with a deep silent rage.

The Saiyan Prince had seen his share of defeats, but nothing like this. This opponent had decimated their entire team without even breaking a sweat...without even trying. What in the world was he?

"You," Vegeta pointed at the Kaioshin, "he said you know something about him, **tell us**."

The Kaio looked at him in surprise and confusion for a few moments before he finally caught himself.

Kibito nearly wanted to step up and barked at Vegeta that this was not a way to talk to a god. But seeing the short look that his master gave him, he backed down.

"Later," the kaioshin replied, "I will tell you everything I know. But for now we have other worries. We have still another opponent...one that we actually have a chance against now."

xxxxxxx

The next hours passed without anything truly unexpected happening.

They had used Instant Transmission, first to bring them back to Capsule Corporation where the others were still waiting, then to Kami´s Palace, that they had just recreated with the help of the Dragon Balls, just before they had vanished forever.

Son Goku had been reunited with Chichi. Her greeting had been more than just a bit overwhelming as she saw him and literally threw herself into his arms.

She and Bulma had been waiting together with Goten and the younger Trunks at Caspsule Corp.

"Goku, it´s you. You are really back," she called out.

"Hello Chichi. Yes, I am back," he said, "but only for today. I have gotten one day in the living world to help."

"I see," she responded in a stressed voice, followed by a short moment of silence. "Oh no mister," she then continued, "I know perfectly well what this comes down to. Listen, I understand that you need to save the world. But for now you will first take a few moments to see your family...to meet your son."

A few of the others grinned in the background. They all knew the way Chichi acted sometimes all too well.

"What are you talking about Chichi?" Goku asked her. "I have already met Gohan. I have been with him the entire time."

At this point she introduced Goten to him. He was more than just a little bit shocked to the small boy who looked pretty much like a miniturized version of himself. But he got used to it pretty fast and the two had a happy first meeting.

It was a scene that reminded all too much of a similar one from another timeline, where Goku had been introduced to his second son in a similar manner.

But this was of course something that nobody here could have known. Not even Trunks, since the recordings that Ne-Me-Sys has shown him of the others timelines didn´t show such details. They only showed what was `necessary´ for him to know...from the insane AI´s point of view.

After the happy but short reunion of the Son family, the next part of their plan was about to beginn.

xxxxxxxx

_Somewhere else_

The AI calling itself the Networked Mega System of Red Ribbon... or simply Ne-Me-Sys was busy analyzing the results of his latest world-wide monitoring.

He was not completely happy...as far as he was able to experience this emotion. All in all his situation was good, more than good. The Z-fighter had been defeated and decimated... and fled.

His controlled humans were on positions everywhere on the planet and with every hour they became more.

While one of his physical incarnations was standing here, close to one of his secret installations, the creation of more Android soldiers and more shells for his consciousness was about to beginn.

He was at the brink of world domination.

Yet still he didn´t especially liked what he had found. The data was confusing...and contradictory.

And that was something that he...being still a machine, no matter how advanced and self aware...had a hard time to accept.

A short time ago he detected the energy signatures of the Z-fighters...that they had suppressed just moments before...suddenly reached a remarkable high level.

But he could find no other signature in that area. So what where they fighting against?

The only logical explanation his various processors could come up with was training. At the first look it made sense.

But why should they display their energy so carelessly when they knew perfectly well that he could find them? No, it did not make sense... not really.

If they decided to train, they would do it at a secluded place, somewhere they were sheltered from his sensors. He knew with Son Goku´s Instant Transmission they could reach practically every world in this universe. So why should they activate their powers here.

He didn´t know. There was not enough information for an analyses...and that was a fact he didn´t like. If he were human he would say it made him nervous. And he didn´t like it.

The Z-fighters were doing something. He **knew** it. But he didn´t know what it was.

But it didn´t matter. Whatever they might hope to achieve, he had his own plans in motion, he had made his own preparations...improving his power.

Despite that he would not act yet. Just as he had predicted from his observation of the other timelines, Son Goku had indeed reached the SSJ3 level. He alone out of them was a true threat to him. But his time here was limited.

All what was left was the mysterious giant increase in power that the Kaioshin had caused in Son Gohan in the other timeline. He had calculated that there was a good chance that they would attempt something similar here as well.

But for that possibility...he had already prepared.

xxxxxxx

Son Goku and the Kaioshin had transported them all to the Palace.

Only Bulma and her family were staying behind at Capsule Corp to continue their own work...and because they knew there was little they could do to help up in that place. The Briefs were fighting in their own way.

The demoralization after the defeat against The Priest was forgotten for the moment.

Like they already said, they had still other enemies...and now they had a chance to move against them.

During the last months, the Nano Plague that the AI named Ne-Me-Sys had created had been spreading over the world. So far they didn´t have a way to stop it.

Even Bulma and her father...two of, if not** the** two most gifted scientists on the planet... had only managed to find ways to slow it down...barely.

But at this point it had already spread to ten...maybe hundred thousands of infected people.

For his newest creation, Ne-Me-Sys had been using technologies that were not even invented yet. Much of it was based on Doctor Gero´s work, some ironically even on Bulma´s own.

To that came also another problem, by what they found out and what they gods under them had already known, Ne-Me-Sys was able to store small parts of his own consciousness inside the infected human´s brains.

There was however another way to stop an infection like this, no matter if of natural or technological heritage, the so called Divine Water stored in Kami´s Palace. It was not a scientific but a supernatural cure, but it would work anyway.

It was one of the main reasons they had used the Dragon Balls to recreate this place, even before trying to resurrect their fallen comrades...what would now never happening.

It was devastating, especially for the ones closest to the ones they had lost. But none of them had thought that Mirai 17 would just murder Dende before they could rescue him. Originally they had all been stunned and overjoyed as they heard that the young Earthen God had indeed survived Ne-Me-Sys assault on his Palace.

That made his senseless death now only harder to accept for them...they had lost him and the chance to bring the others back all over again.

Still, they needed the Palace and especially some of the tools inside if they wanted to defeat Ne-Me-Sys.

Right now, while the saiyajins and the others were standing together at the large surface area, talking about what to do next, Piccolo and the two alien deities were going inside to find the place where the Water was stored...and then use installation in the Palace to spread it over the entire planet.

The effect became visible after only a few minutes, worldwide. In that sense it was truly a `divine´ cure.

All over the planet, people who had been for days, weeks...in some cases months, been in a welking nightmare, were now suddenly waking up...and looking at their surroundings and each other in complete confusion.

With the removal of the Nano Plague, they also seemed to have lost all memory of what they had done under it´s influence. Maybe it was better this way, some of them had killed, destroyed and attacked others while they were not in control of themselves.

This was **one** part of the plan Son Goku and the Kaioshin had developed together. It was their first small victory.

The next step of it was right about to begin...and they didn´t have much time.

"So this is what we do?" Gohan asked in this moment.

"The question is who of us will do what?" Trunks questioned.

They had all been listening to the details of the plan and the following things to do.

The next one was actually quite simply, they needed more power...and that quickly.

Every of Ne-Me-Sys Android bodies was at the Level of a very strong SSJ2...and to that came the unlimited energy supply and on top of that the regeneration that he had salvaged from this Gete Star entity Trunks had mentioned.

So far none of them... with the exception of Son Goku who was however already dead and made it clear that he can not do it... had been able to actually defeat even a single one of Ne-Me-Sys incarnations and they knew he had at least two more of them left.

Only Vegeta had actually been able to destroy one, but this single attack left him outdrained and helpless and nearly cost him his own life. Trunks and Son Gohan on the other hand, like they were now, had no chance.

And there was no telling if Ne-Me-Sys didn´t have something else in the backhand, something they hadn´t seen yet.

Trunks knew the AI good enough by now to know that this was a very likely possibility.

They needed to get stronger and they had been offered two possibilities to gain it...two different ways.

"I have already seen the inside of this chamber twice now," Vegeta stated. "I would rather try something new. So I will go with you," he addressed the Kaioshin. "I hope this `legend´ that you have been talking about holds what it promises."

"I..I can of course not say for sure. But it is been told that the Z-sword is able to give tremendous power to the one who can pull it out of the stone."

"So all I have to do is pull a sword out of a piece of rock and I can get stronger? And you say this works?" he asked Trunks.

"I know that in the other timeline Gohan went with the Kaioshin and came back several times stronger than he had been before after only a short time. I don´t know **how** he had done it. But I know that it worked."

"Good," Vegeta said simply, "then let us start."

"You should go with them as well Gohan," Trunks told the counterpart of his old mentor. "Like I said, whatever happened, it has done far more for you than a year in the Room of Spirit and Time did...at least in another world."

"But you can not longer train in the Chamber. You already have..." But he stopped himself. He remembered that this was not the same Trunks he had known before. So even if he had trained two years in the Room as well...and he wasn´t even sure if he did...there was no telling if the Chamber would recognize this spend time.

But was it really worth risking it?

"I know," Trunks replied. "But that doesn´t matter."

"Trust us in this," Son Goku pointed out. "We have an idea."

"Okay Dad," Gohan answered.

"But I will stay here as well," nobody else than the Kaioshin told them now.

"But..."

"No Kibito. You know your part of the plan. Bring Vegeta and Son Gohan to the Z-sword and let them try to free it. I am quite sure they will succeed. I am needed here. Son Goku will come with you as well. You know what to do Kibito."

"I do master," he answered.

"Wll, **we** will come as well," Chichi of all people spoke up now. "Goku is back only for a single day and I want him to spend as much time with his family as possible."

"What? But we are going to the homeworld of the Kaioshins, a holy place," Kibito bursted out, gapping at her. "Bringing these two is already..."

"But nothing mister," Chichi interrupted him, "me and Gohan have not seen my husband for seven years, Son Goten had never met his father before. We **are** going."

"But."

"Let them," the Kaioshin just said.

"I actually wanted to show you the basics of another technique I have learned in the Afterlife. It is called Fusion," Son Goku stated. "I am also thinking about teaching it to Son Goten and Trunks as well."

"Ahm Goku," the elder Trunks interrupted. "I am not sure if that is such a good idea. You did the same thing in the other timeline and it didn´t exactly work out so well. Son Goten and my younger self may be strong, but in the end they are just two eight years old. I think it would be better if you concentrate at showing us adults this technique. If truly necessary we can still teach it to them later."

He remembered the Fusion of these two from the other timeline...Gotenks as he had been called. They had created him for the fight against Boo. He had not only failed, but got absorbed and actually become part of the problem.

Not through lack of strength. No, he had actually been stronger than Boo and could have finished him off. It was through sheer overconfidence and carelessness.

"If you think so," Goku replied.

"**Finally**... someone who actually understands that bringing children on a battlefield is a bad idea," Chichi remarked.

"Whatever you decide to do...**we** should better do it quickly," a voice interrupted them. It was Android 17.

They all knew he was right. It would only be a short time until Ne-Me-Sys had detected them here and realized that Kami´s Palace had been restored.

"If you excuse me now, I should talk with my sister. She had just lost her husband...and found out now that we can not even bring him back," the Android told them.

xxxxxxx

Hundreds of miles away, it came exactly as 17 had predicted.

Ne-Me-Sys, having followed the energy signatures and the latest moves of the Z-fighters. What he found out more than surprised...and stunned...even the highly developed AI.

He had realized that their latest position was exactly at the place where Kami´s Palace had been before it´s destruction. All their signals were assembled there, high up above the surface. Why?

So he send one of his spy drones to investigate.

What he had found send him for a few moments into the machine equivalent of absolute shock. The Palace that he himself had destroyed existed once again...He saw it with his own cameras.

But how? Every bit of data in his system told him it was impossible.

The Dragon Balls...yes...but that was impossible...he had killed both Dende and the Grand Elder of Namek. But that was the only explanation. Somehow at least one of them must have escaped. Or was there someone else who could create Dragon Balls in this timeline? Someone he didn´t know about.

Whatever it was, he would have to `correct´ this fact quickly. He would have to act now, even if he had originally wanted to wait until Son Goku had to return to the Afterlife.

Moments later he realized something else. He was loosing contact to his infected humans. One by one it was as if they vanished from existence.

He knew of course what was going on...the Palace...they were using the same magical cure that they had used to eradicate Beby´s infection in the other timeline. Had he been human he would have cursed.

His new world...his Empire...he saw a part of it falling apart. His Nano Plaque was being wiped out...and he could do nothing to stop it.

He gave an signal to his other physical self. They had to get to the Palace and stop them before they caused even more damage, Son Goku or not Son Goku...his time in the world of the living should be as good as over anyway.

He would destroy them all.

xxxxxxx

_Kami´s Palace_

"Everyone´s ready?" he asked. "Then let us go." Son Goku had his own family, Vegeta, the young Trunks and Kibito assembled around him.

As he raised his hand to his temple, he and the others instantly vanished, leaving only an empty space.

Mirai Trunks admitted he had not known that Instant Transmission could be used to transport that many people at once. He could only hope that it would work and the others would indeed gain more power at the world of the Kaioshins.

Trunks himself, Piccolo, the Kaioshin and 17 and 18 were staying behind. They were following another idea...one that he didn´t necessarely liked. But so far it was the best they had.

They didn´t even know if Son Goku and the others would succeed.

In some distance he saw a lone figure sitting at the ledge right in front of the Room of Spirit and Time.

It was Eighteen. Krillin was dead, he knew...and so was Tienshinhan...without a way back. All that because of another technological terror Doctor Gero had ultimately created.

"I know how you feel," he said to her as he approached her.

"I can imagine that... being who you are," she replied bitter.

Her daughter Marron had also stayed with the Briefs family. There she was safer than she would be up here when Ne-Me-Sys would appear.

Like all the others of her friends and family, she knew everything about the place where Trunks came from. The world devastated...the people who would had been her husband and his closest friends killed trying to prevent it...and all that by the hands of 17´s and her own counterparts.

And after finally meeting these alternate versions of themselves, she understood this all too well. They actually laughed as the other 17 murdered Dende and destroyed every chance to bring Krillin back to live. If she had the chance she would kill them herself.

"I needed some time for me alone," she stated.

"I can understand that. I remember how I felt when I lost Gohan... Tapion...and so many others."

"And the ones responsible were mine and 17´s doubles," she pointed out. "I have heard enough about your world...and now we had the `pleasure´ of meeting them ourselves."

"Eighteen...I wanted to tell you, I know you are not like the other one...like them."

"Thank you," she answered.

In this moment their conversation was suddenly interrupted...by an explosion.

They raised their heads to the air where the sound came from and saw Piccolo who had just blocked an ki blast fired from one of Ne-Me-Sys Android incarnations.

"You should better look out," he yelled at them. "He is here."

He had found them. Just like they had expected.

To their horror they saw the other Android body coming in from the other side.

"We have to get away from here," Piccolo shouted.

"He is right," Trunks said to 18. "Come on."

"Seventeen," she was shouting to her brother who was shooting ki balls at the second Android form Ne-Me-Sys who was approaching, while quickly moving backwards.

He nodded back at her.

17 was repeating a technic that Piccolo had ironically once used against him during their fight seven years ago. He was firing several small globes of energy, that stopped their movements and left hanging in the air, completely surrounding their opponents.

Then, with a clash of his hand, he forced the ki balls that he had scattered over the area back together, hitting their two opponents from all directions.

Normally Ne-Me-Sys sensors would have instantly seen what he was doing, especially since he had also data about the fight between 17 and the Namek Warrior these years ago. But the others were taking shots at him as well, trying to distract the AI.

Split seconds later the two Android bodies were covered in a large explosion. They all knew this would by far not be enough to finish them off or even damage them noticable.

But they all used this chance. They were running.

"Do you actually think this is a good idea?" 17 asked them.

"No, but we have no choice here," Piccolo answered.

Trunks was the first to arrive at their target and opened the door...the door that led inside the Room of Spirit and Time.

They all kept running. He, 17 and 18, Piccolo and the Kaioshin, as they all had entered the door to the other dimension, Trunks turned around and did what he had always been warned about when he had trained here all those years back.

He fired a ki blast and destroyed the entrance.

They all were all starring...at him and at the empty space where had once been the door. There was no way back now, they all knew that. Ne-Me-Sys could no longer reach them, but now they were trapped here.

Maybe for all eternity.

xxxxxxx

This was it. There was no time left.

Mister Satan knew it was over. There was no longer avoiding the unavoidable.

He was standing in the center of the mostly devastated town...where the battle took place. Right where Ne-Me-Sys had been seen the last time.

They have finally send him out here. He had certainly not wanted to come. But they had forced him and he finally run out of excuses.

The limo that had brought him here had dropped him off right here at this place, right in the middle of the wrecked city... and after leaving him here the driver just raced off as quickly as possible in case the moster was still somewhere close by.

Mister Satan admitted he understood why.

This was it. His life was over.

He had only one last chance left, that the fighters who had stopped Cell would return...and that before Ne-Me-Sys found him.

xxxxxxx

_Inside The Room of Spirit and Time_

Here they were now. In another dimension, completely cut off from the outside world.

Trunks, Seventeen, Eighteen, Piccolo and the Kaioshin were looking at each other.

"Well, now we are here it seems," the Namek stated.

"We had no choice," Trunks responded.

"The only good thing about our situation is that I don´t require food, neither do 17 and 18. I am not so sure about the Kaioshin. Normally the Chamber can only hold two people for a longer time since there are not enough supplies."

"I am a god," the Kaio answered, "I will cope either way."

"Well, this is also a way to spend our vacation," Seventeen remarked drily.

"17, this is not the time," Eighteen spoke up.

"What sis? You know as good as me how screwed up all this is. Why not speak it out?"

She said nothing.

"He won´t reach us here," the Kaioshin stated. "That is exactly what we wanted. Now we have all time in the world."

They all were starring out into the infinite white emptiness.

xxxxxxx

_The World of the Kaioshin_

Vegeta was raging.

They had arrived here several hours before and just as he could have predicted, pulling the sword out of the rock had not been difficult at all as soon as he became a SSJ.

There was only one problem.

"And?" he growled at Kibito who was standing next to him. "You said this thing would make me stronger. Where is it?"

"Ah...you see..." he replied bashfully, "the legend only said that the Z-sword would give it´s weilder more power, it never said how. And I think you have already made some progress, just by training with it," he said weakly.

The Saiyan Prince had indeed been using the sword for training for some time now. It´s enormous weight made it ideal for it, he admitted so much. Still it had barely any effect on his powerlevel.

"You call this progress? There is barely a difference than before. Maybe if I had been so out of training as Gohan here, it would had any effect, but so. This is a waste."

"Maybe you should calm down a bit Vegeta," Goku told him. "I am sure there is a secret about this sword. We have just to figure it out."

Son Goku was sitting a few meters from them in the grass, beside his family. Technically his time in the world of the living was already over. But since the World of the Kaioshin was not truly part of that dimension, he was still here.

"Yes," Kibito stated, "all we need is some time."

"Time? Time? We have no time. All we have in **one day**...or have you forgotten about that?" Vegeta asked angrily.


	15. Chapter 15: Return and End

**Chapter 15**

One day had passed in the regular world.

On the first look not much had changed in this time.

Outside the Nano Plaque had finally been stopped and Ne-Me-Sys attempt at world conquest significantly slowed down.

But it had by far not been stopped. He was already beginning to adapt his plans.

xxx

For the inhabitants of the Room of Spirit and Time of course it was the equivalent of an entire year.

In the time they had been trapped her however, they had not been idle. They had done nothing but train.

Trunks, Seventeen, Eighteen, Piccolo, even the Kaioshin, who had not been much of a warrior in the first place, grown stronger.

But they were not doing all this in vain. The truth was, they actuall had a plan...they had it the whole time.

In this moment Trunks was still sparring with 18. The Android could now easily outfight and get the upper hand over him in this form. Right now he was clearly in the defensive in their match and Eighteen was not even fighting at full strength.

Her brother though...starting out more powerful and having trained more during the last years before...was even a bit stronger than her right now.

But 18 had also been training like possessed and managed to nearly catch up with him. They all knew, at least part of her determination was based on her loss and the fact that it could now never be returned.

In the time they had been here, Trunks had spend a whole time with all of them, Piccolo, the Kaioshin, but also the two Androids. He had spoken often to both of them, especially however to 18 since he could relate to her loss.

"Trunks, Eighteen," Piccolo shouted at them. He himself had just finished his latest sparring match with Seventeen a short time ago, one he had lost. "It is time now," he said.

xxxxxxx

In the normal world one day had passed. **Here** truly not much has changed.

Surprisingly, maybe on the first look, the rest of the Palace was still intact. This was only for one reason.

Ne-Me-Sys wanted to exermine it. He was searching for hints how the Namekian named Dende was able to survive the original destruction...and especially where he was now. If the Dragon Balls still existed, they might be a permanent danger for his plans.

That was the only reason he had not destroyed everything again right away.

He knew not all of the remaining Z-fighters had been trapped inside the so called Room of Spirit and Time. When they returned, he would be ready.

When they returned the Z-fighters would die.

xxxxxxx

_The Room of Spirit and Time _

The five of them were standing close together. It was time.

They had been trapped here, cut off from the outside-world. Normally there would have been no way back from that fate. Ne-Me-Sys had known this as well.

There was no way out of here unless your power matches or surpasses that of Majin Buu. And Ne-Me-Sys knew perfectly well that none of them was even anywhere close to that level, even if they trained here for years.

By all rights they should starve to death here... without a way back...until water and food were running out.

But there was one thing the AI had hopefully overlooked...

"Are you ready?" Trunks asked the Kaioshin.

"Yes I am," he replied.

"Then let us go."

The Kaioshin, as he himself said, was a god. His form of Instant Transmission was different when the one Son Goku had learned. In opposite to him he didn´t need to concentrate on a ki signature for it to work.

And of course, just like Son Goku he was able to move between dimensions. Trunks was relatively sure however that Ne-Me-Sys didn´t knew about these details.

And then, in the next moment, they were gone.

xxxxxxx

_Planet of the Kaioshin_

Meanwhile in another Realm, the rest of the Z-fighters had meanwhile been doing their own form of `training´.

Son Gohan was at this moment sitting on the ground while an very old looking being, another Kaioshin, was for the most time just sitting in front of him and from time to time making strange noises and gestures. In the beginning it had even started out with the old Kaio constantly moving around him with bizarre steps that reminded them all of some sort of dance.

To be honest they somehow got the impression that most of it were just theatrics, but none of them said this aloud.

Vegeta had already gone through the same ritual a short time earlier.

The others were watching the process with curiosity, patience...or in Vegeta´s case... annoyance.

It was nearly a day ago now that **it** happened...both the Saiyan Prince and Gohan had already undergone a fair share of training with the Z-sword, with mixed results.

While both of them had gotten `somewhat´ stronger, at least for Vegeta there had barely been a difference.

This was clearly not what they had been promised.

It was at some point around that time, when the Saiyan Prince had finally just lost his patience. He had taken the sword and smashed it hard against the rock that he had pulled it out of earlier.

The blade shattered instantly, much to Kibito´s complete shock.

_"What have you done?" he had asked him horrified._

_"If this sword breaks so easily than it was worthless from the beginning," Vegeta simply replied._

_"But this is a holy object, it...it..." he stammered.  
_

_In this moment another voice interrupted them._

_"Ahh, it seems I am free again...That was really about time," the figure called out as soon as he saw the others standing there.  
_

Then the old man explained who he was, in fact a Kaioshin from several generations back who had once been sealed inside the weapon by an enemy...His story actually had become the base for the legend of the Z-sword.

He explained his ability to bring out the latent powers of others...better than anyone else could do it...and offered it to them as a reward.

Being in the situation they were... and being **who** they were, they accepted without any hesitation.

Vegeta, since he was the one who had actually shattered the sword and freed him, was the first to receive the treatment. Beside that, the Kaioshin had also said that the process would be quicker for him.

Of course the Saiyan Prince didn´t like the implication that Gohan´s dormant powers were greater than his. But he certainly didn´t deny the power-up.

But there was also another matter. The time they had been given for the plan was nearly up...and the release of Gohan´s power was still far from finished.

That left two possibilities. Either send him before he is yet at full strength or leave him here for now and bring him later if he was needed. I didn´t take them long to make their choice.

xxxxxxx

At the same time on Earth, Trunks and the others had reappeared in the regular world. Just like planned they materialized close to Kami´s Palace, floating in the air.

"Piccolo," Trunks addressed the Namekian. "There are still Ne-Me-Sys other installations. I told you where to find them. Every one of them holds a part of Ne-Me-Sys consciousness. We need to take them all out."

"Okay," the Namek Warrior responded. It was a logical choice, he thought silently.

While Piccolo had made great progress in the time-chamber, like all of them, he was right now the weakest of their group. So he would be the one to take out the computer-installations. He may not exactly like it, but it was the right decision.

"We will deal with his Android bodies," Trunks said, looking at 17 and 18 who just nodded in return.

"I will return to my homeworld and get the others," the Kaioshin told them. "I hope they have managed to free the Z-sword...and that the legend about it is true." With this words he teleported away.

"Then lets go," Piccolo stated. He flew off with his full speed in the direction where he knew the first one of Ne-Me-Sys consoles was located.

"Now, how do we find **him**?" 18 asked.

"I am quite sure he has already located us," Trunks replied. "In princip we could just wait for him."

"But is it a good idea to give him the time to prepare?" 17 pointed out.

"No, it is not," he answered. "But to be honest you know we have no way to find any of his Android forms. They don´t radiate any ki and neither of you two possess a device to locate them."

"True, but I still don´t like it," Seventeen admitted.

"So do I," Trunks responded. "But I got an impression that the choice is taken out of our hands anyway."

They noticed that the half-saiyan was looking at the horizon. In the distance they saw a figure approaching.

"It seems you were right," 17 stated. "He **did** found us."

A few moments later a second, identical looking, being came flying in from another direction.

"Let us fight him first," 18 stated grimly. "You can save your energy if he has still some surprise for us like you thought. With some luck, we might take him out by ourselves."

Both Trunks and her brother knew that there was more than just strategy speaking out of Eighteen. She wanted revenge for what happened to Krillin.

Within moments both incarnations of Ne-Me-Sys had arrived and were floating motionless before them.

"You are back in the outside world," one Android vessels stated.

"Obviously," Trunks commented.

"But by my data it should have been impossible to escape from the Room of Spirit and Time...At least with **your** abilities," he observed. "How did you do it?"

"It seems you have underestimated us Ne-Me-Sys. Or better said the Kaioshin," the half-saiyan remarked.

"The Kaioshin? So he has a method to escape another dimension, interesting. It seems I should revise my data-storage."

"You won´t need to, because we are taking you down now," Eighteen exclaimed.

Without another word she and Seventeen attacked. Their speed, just like their strength had increased drastically.

Both charged the two incarnations of Ne-Me-Sys and caught them off guard. 18 landed a hard kick on the head of one of them and then drovne her fist into the gut of the Android. 17 shot a ki blast directly into the face of the other and then kicked him into the stomach as he was distracted.

Both easily got the upper hand and forced their opponents backwards. They were winning. The only problem was that most of the damage they caused would be repaired by the Gete Star regeneration.

And with that they would only grow stronger. The twins knew they should win this fight as quickly as possible...

...and if not they should fall back to Trunks.

Especially Eighteen was sending out one angry blow at her opponent after the other. Trunks only hoped that she wouldn´t let her anger get the better of her and make a mistake. Like letting him regenerate too often.

xxxxxxx

The Kaioshin was back on the sacred homeworld. He was more than shocked as he saw the old Kaioshin and gotten a short explanation how he had been trapped in the Z-sword the entire time.

He had also been told that Son Gohan was not ready yet...but Vegeta was. So the two returned to Earth.

xxxxxxx

"That is enough," Ne-Me-Sys declared. Both of his robot-forms speaking simultanously.

Until right no he had been heavily cornered by the Android-twins. 18 was holding them back with Infinity Bullet, shooting them without pause, while 17 prepared a larger ki attack...assisted by Trunks, who had joined them for what they hoped would be the finishing move.

But in this moment Ne-Me-Sys finally acted. Hanging otherwise motionless in the air...his two incarnation were moving closer and closer to each other.

Trunks had a good idea what was happening...and he didn´t like it at all.

"Seventeen, now," he shouted. Both of them fired their attacks, the demi-saiyan his Buster Cannon and 17 a technique he called Advanced Power Blitz, that he fired with both hands at his opponent. It was an improved version of his original move that he had developed in the Room of Spirit and Time.

But it was too late...by split-seconds. The two attacks hit, but the two bodies were already merging into one...and at the same time, errected an Android-Barrier around themselves.

Moments later, a single version of Ne-Me-Sys was standing before them. This was was a bit larger than the individual forms, yet nearly identical in appearance...and without a doubt far more powerful.

"I have feared something like that," Trunks said. "Stay back for now," he turned to the others. "I will deal with this."

17 and 18 draw a few meters back, knewing perfectly well what their friend was going to do.

Now in front of them, Trunks began to power up.

xxxxxxx

Piccolo had reached the first location Trunks had given to him. Beneath him he could see the cave inside a rock formation that held Ne-Me-Sys Android factory.

In his hand he began to form a ki blast...and fired downwards.

xxxxxxx

Ne-Me-Sys of course instantly registered what had happened, that a part of him had been destroyed.

It was unfortunate. But the AI didn´t let this distract him. Ne-Me-Sys wasn´t worried. His Android body had now reached it´s strongest form.

He could always rebuild later. Right now his focus was on the threat right in front of him.

In front of him Trunks was still raising his powerlevel and transformed into a SSJ3.

"I see you have reached this level," the AI observed. "It won´t help you. I have studied the characteristics of this stage. You won´t be able to hold this for for long if you have it only for a short time. You will die here and your allies will follow you soon."

"No. I will use this form to take you down and if necessary 17 and 18 here will assist me. It is not as if I have to defeat you alone," he said...and attacked instantly, not wasting a second anymore.

Trunks threw a powerful ki amplified punch at his opponent, which Ne-Me-Sys however blocked with his arms quite easily. The AI shot a blast at him at the short distance, what he however managed to dodge without problem.

Then he fell back a few meters and fired a Burning Attack that broke through Ne-Me-Sys shields but caused not more than minimal damage. That would be repaired very quickly anyway.

It was clear that both combatants were not far away from each other in power.

The merged Android stayed mostly at the defense and let the half-saiyan come at him.

"I am impressed Trunks...by your strategy **and** your stength," the AI admitted. "Your powerlevel in this stage is actually higher than mine. But it won´t help you. Like I said, you won´t be able to hold this level for long and then you will loose."

"Do you know what your problem is Ne-Me-Sys?" he responded. "Despite all your development, despite all the powers you have integrated into yourself, deep down you are still just a machine. You are only capable of using tactics you have copied from somewhere else. Android 16 has more imagination than you have. He is more `alive´ than you are."

"Do you think **so**?" the Android AI answered. His voice had now taken a low and dangerous tone. "We will see. Your attempts to provoke me will not help you Trunks. Very soon your strength will run out. And the...unless of course your friends will appear to assist you...you are lost."

"Then is is very good that **I** am here, right?" a voice was suddenly coming from another direction...Vegeta.

They turned around to him. The Saiyan Prince and the Kaioshin were levitating in some distance above them.

"You are here father," Trunks addressed him.

"Of course I am," Vegeta responded.

"What about Gohan?" he wanted to know.

"His...let us say `training´ is not yet finished. But I don´t think it looks like we will even need him." He nodded short to the god flying next to him and the Kaio teleported back to his world.

Then, as soon as he was gone, Vegeta attacked. He moved with incredible speed and rammed both of his feet into Ne-Me-Sys. He took the blow with his arms crossed but the force of the attack threw the Android backwards.

Trunks admitted he was more than impressed by the power his father displayed. Like Gohan in the other timeline, Vegeta was not transformed, but his powerlevel easily rivalled that of a SSJ3. And in opposite to him he hadn´t gone through a full year of training.

"You realize, the robot reject here is right about one thing," Vegeta stated. "Your energy won´t hold up for much longer. So we should take him out now hard and fast."

But before they had the chance Ne-Me-Sys turned around and flew away with full speed. In this moment he felt another part of himself die. The Namek must have destroyed another one of his installations. Now there was only one left.

"He is running," Vegeta exclaimed in a strange mixture of anger and triumph. "The coward fled."

"Then lets go after him," 18 said.

All of them followed the retreating Android immediately.

Trunks changed back into a normal Super Saiyajin to preserve energy. Even with Vegeta´s new strength, there was a good chance that his level three form would still be needed before the end.

What they didn´t knew was that `escaping´ was about the last thing on Ne-Me-Sys mind. What he was intending was actually to buy time.

xxxxxxx

_Planet of the Kaioshin_

Son Gohan was now quickly loosing his patience. This was taking too long, he thought as the old man was still moving around him. Vegeta had already gone back to Earth and the fight had already begun...and he was just sitting around here.

"Are you finished yet?" he asked.

"No, not yet. It will take a little bit more," the old man replied.

"And how much more?"

"Well, so ten to twelfe hours at least," he replied, "maybe a bit longer." His tone was completely relaxed, as if he was telling him about the weather.

"What?" Gohan shouted. "We don´t have that much time."

"This is just how long it takes. What are you complaining about. You have just that much hidden power. So it just takes that long. You should feel lucky. Not everyone can be become that powerful."

"And what use is that if the battle is long over when I arrive?" Gohan questioned agitated. "I need to get to Earth to help."

"Well, if you put it that way," the old Kaioshin commented.

"Elder, you have to admit Gohan has a point here," the younger one told him. "What purpose does all power in the world serve if he comes far too late to help? Can you end the ritual **now**?"

"...If I have to," he answered after a short moment of hesitation. "But he won´t be anywhere close to full power. As far as I can tell I have released barely half of it."

"That doesn´t matter. Half of it or not, we need him now," the younger Kaioshin replied.

"Are you ready Gohan?" he asked.

The demi-saiyan nodded to him.

"Goodbye father," he said to Son Goku.

"Goodluck Gohan," he told him. "I will watch over you from the Afterlife like before. We will see each other again when the time comes."

A moment later Son Gohan and the Kaioshin vanished.

xxxxxxx

Meanwhile on Earth the chase that Ne-Me-Sys sudden retreat had started was continuing. He was constantly moving, but they had gained some upon him in their pursuit, but not managed to catch him yet.

But then suddenly, the fleeing Android stopped in mid-flied. Ne-Me-Sys turned around to face them.

A few moments before two figures appeared in some distance to them in the air, Gohan and the Kaioshin. They had arrived.

The others sensed their presence nearly instantly.

"Gohan," Trunks greeted him as they came closer and the two groups reunited.

"I see you finally made it," Vegeta said to him.

"Sadly there was not enough time left to complete the ritual," the Kaioshin commented. "Gohan is not as strong as he could be, but it will have to do."

"Doesn´t matter," Vegeta replied. "It doesn´t seem that we will need you anyway," he said looking over at Ne-Me-Sys, who was now hanging in the air before them.

Son Gohan powered up as well...and took position at the side of the rest of them. By what the others could tell, he wasn´t quite as strong as Vegeta. But he was not far behind him.

"So you have stopped trying to flee," Trunks addressed the AI.

They had won, he thought. Ne-Me-Sys was now completely outmatched. He, his father, Gohan, 17 and 18 and even the Kaioshin, against him alone... even if the AI still had something in the backhand, he had no chance anymore.

"You misunderstand my intentions Trunks, I never attempted to flee," Ne-Me-Sys replied. "I was only waiting for the right moment. And that moment is now."

"What do you mean? you..." the half-saiyan asked confused.

In this moment Son Gohan prepared a ki attack. He went into a fighting stance

...and then he fired it directly at Vegeta.

The blast was directly followed by a second one from Ne-Me-Sys himself.

Trunks and the Android siblings could only stare in complete shock at what had just happened.

"Gohan, what in the world have you done?" he shouted.

"Have you lost your mind?" 17 asked him.

"You should not have underestimated me," Ne-Me-Sys responded in his place. "You should know, as you wiped out my Nano Plaque, I was actually able to hide a small part of it...at a place where you would never look."

Trunks gaze instantly turned to Gohan.

"No." What was all he managed to say.

"Yes. I was able to infect him during our last battle. My calculations have told me however that there was a chance you would try to gain more power with the help of the Kaioshin, like you did in the other timeline. So I waited to activate them...until now. Gohan here was a security measure."

"One that had more than paid out you have to admit," Ne-Me-Sys said from Son Gohan´s body. "Now Trunks, have you not just said something about my plans? Something about being second handed? Or has your failure cost you your voice?"

"Damn you," Trunks shouted.

Vegeta was looking all but happy. The two attack that his him had caused slight, but visible damage.

"Goddamnit," he hissed. "If you think that was enough to take me out of the fight you have another thing coming. I can still deal with you. Trunks, take care of Son Gohan. Try not to hurt him** too** much."

"Okay father," he replied.

17 and 18 took position close to them to assist them if necessary.

Trunks at this point saw only one way out of this: _`Piccolo´_, he send out a mental message. He had never before been so glad that he had learned to communicate telepathically during the last years.

xxxxxxx

The Namekian was just floating above the last of Ne-Me-Sys fascilities that he had just found.

Suddenly he heard Trunks voice in his head.

_`Piccolo,´ he called him. `Ne-Me-Sys had taken control of Gohan. You need to bring us more of the Divine Water, now."_

Piccolo visibly tensed as he heard this.

"Okay, I will get it," he answered... loud and per telepathy at the same time.

Then he send down a two handed ki blast that obliterated the entire area beneath him, before he flew as fast as he could back to the Palace.

xxxxxxx

For Trunks it was the worst fight he could imagine. Gohan had been his mentor, his friend... and his older brother.

And now he was being controlled by the enemy. It might not have been this version of Gohan that he had been closest to, but they were more than similar enough. In his mind he was being forced to fight his best friend...in a life and death battle.

His powerlevel was still a bit higher than Gohan´s, but with the energy drain of the SSJ3 form and the fact that he had already used it before, he was loosing his strength very quickly.

To that came that he was trying desperately not to seriously harm his opponent.

"Gohan, listen to me. You must try to resist him. Don´t let him control you," Trunks called out.

"Gohan can not hear you Trunks," Ne-Me-Sys/Gohan answered.

18 tried to interfere and was attacking `Gohan´ from the side. But like him she was holding back and was not able to achieve much. With the demi-saiyan´s current power it would have been hard for her to damage him anyway, unless with a direct hit with amplified power.

But that was exactly what she and Trunks were trying to avoid.

The Kaioshin was also trying to help, but there was not much he could do. He admitted...partly to his embarassment...that all the others who had trained together with him in the Room of Spirit and Time, had surpassed him by far.

xxx

A short distance to them, 17 was assisting Vegeta against Ne-Me-Sys merged Android forms.

The Saiyan Prince was not exactly excited about the help and would have preferred to fight alone. But given the situation he accepted it.

"I appreciate your assistance Android," he had said, "even if I don´t really need it."

"You shouldn´t think that you are the hot shit now just because the Kaioshins have juiced you up a little Vegeta. You know, others here have actually trained for their power," Seventeen replied sarcastically.

Vegeta looked not quite happy about this comment. But there was not much he could answer. He remembered the ridiculous way the old Kaio had unleashed his and Gohan´s powers after all...and he was the first to admit that it was ridiculous.

Their fight continued for another while without someone truly getting the upper hand.

Vegeta, after having his power released and Ne-Me-Sys merged Android form were very close to each other in strength. But like Trunks, Vegeta had the problem that unlike his opponent he was loosing energy during the fight.

Even 17 assistance could not completely negate that...and Seventeen himself, despite having surpassed even a SSJ2, was still behind the other two in power right now.

xxx

"Gohan, please," Trunks shouted. "Come to your senses."

For a short moment, the other half-saiyan actually seemed to hesitate, but then he continued to fight as if nothing had happened.

Trunks, 18 and the Kaioshin fought mostly defensively, trying to buy time. They would cure Gohan and then defeat Ne-Me-Sys last remeining incarnation. Unless of course they would die before that, Trunks thought as he barely doged another blast from the murderous AI in the form of his best friend.

He would stop this madness once and for all. He was determined like never before to put an end to this monster. But despite this he could himself slowly growing weaker.

"It seems we get another visitor," Gohan/Ne-Me-Sys said after a few more minutes.

They all sensed Piccolo coming in. As they hoped he must be bringing some of the Divine Water. But given what they knew what Ne-Me-Sys was capable of, there was a good chance he could figure this out as well.

It was in this moment that Trunks fell out of SSJ3. He had not enough energy left to maintain the level.

"Gohan, Trunks, 18," Piccolo called out as he arrived a second later, "I have it. Hold him still for a moment."

"I see. The Namek has returned and is now trying to cure your friend. This might have actually worked. if I let you. Gohan kill him, **kill them all**," he gave the mental command, closely followed by the verbal one.

"Don´t do it. Don´t let him control you Gohan," Piccolo yelled.

The half-saiyan started to move...but then suddenly tensed and stopped, hanging in the air.

Then he started to scream...holding his own head.

"What are you doing Son Gohan?" Ne-Me-Sys Android incarnation screamed from the other side of the battlefield where he was still facing Vegeta and 17. "Kill them, kill them **now**. You are mine. I controll you."

"As always you are underestimating the will of others Ne-Me-Sys," Trunks told him. "That will be your undoing."

"Now," Piccolo shouted, "immobilize him."

"We **are**," 18 told him, grabbing one of Gohan´s arms, as Trunks was holding the other.

While he was currently stronger than each of this two individually, he was also disoriented and struggling with himself. So they had no real problem to hold him still for a short time...since he was barely fighting back anyway.

Piccolo used this chance, moved forward and forced some of the water from the small can he had taken along down Gohan´s throat.

For a few short seconds, the half-saiyan´s screams even intensified. For a moment his eyes were suddenly glowing up in an inhuman red, before it´s glow went out forever.

And now he was looking around confused at the others.

"Piccolo, Trunks," Gohan stammered, "...you..."

"It is good to have you back Gohan," Trunks said.

"Trunks...is he?"

"He doesn´t control you anymore," Piccolo told him. "I used some of the Divine Water on you. Now it is time to take care of the rest of him." He was looking at Ne-Me-Sys now last remaining incarnation.

"Piccolo, do you have a few Senzu Beans?" Trunks asked him.

"Here," the Namek answered and handed him one.

After eating it, Trunks once again became a SSJ3.

"Good, now let us end this," he told them.

They all were taking positions next to Vegeta and 17.

"It is over for you, once and for all," Trunks proclaimed.

"No...No, I **won´t** let it end like that," Ne-Me-Sys said. "If my existence ends here, then I will take this entire planet with me that you are trying to protect.

He began to collect energy in his palms...for one last devastating attack down on the Earth. But before he could use any sort of actual technique, his arms were hit from the side by a globe of artificial ki, that threw him off and the energy he had already gathered evaporated.

Ne-Me-Sys saw the one who had interrupted his final attempt, Android 17.

"That is another technique that I came up with in the Time-chamber. I call it Hell´s Globe," Seventeen announced.

"You, I should have destroyed you and your sister when I had the chance."

"Well, you didn´t...and now we will finish off you," 17 replied.

"Your creation Cell was trying to do the same thing," Trunks commented. "Typical for your kind, as soon as you see you are loosing, you rather try to destroy everything."

"Now," Vegeta shouted...and fired his Final Flash directly at Ne-Me-Sys, closely followed by Trunks Buster Cannon, Gohan´s Kamehameha and attacks from Piccolo, Seventeen and Eighteen and the Kaioshin that joined them.

For a split-second, the Android Barrier that Ne-Me-Sys had errected was holding the combined attack off. But only for a moment before they broke through it as if it wasn´t even there.

The last body of the Red Ribbon AI was burned down to it´s molecules...wiped from existance. One second later it was over.

The remaining Z-fighters were looking at each other for a short time. They had won. None of them truly wanted to cheer or jubilate after all what had happened, the friend who they could never get back.

Still they exchanged smiles and a few congratulations about this last victory.

xxx

In the following days peace would return to this world, at least for a while...temporary.

While the normal people rejoiced, the Z-fighters had not forgotten the other threats out there that were waiting.

xxxxxxx

At another part of the planet, thousands of miles away, a remote area, not populated, a wounded saiyan was desperately trying to move his body.

The injuries he had received from his last fight with the accursed Kakarot had been heavy...the fight he had lost without even any chance.

But slowly, Broly was recovering.

xxxxxxx

_Another timeline, Post GT Universe_

Son Goku, the one who had left Earth together with Shenlong a several weeks ago, was now standing on another planet.

This was however not an ordinary world. It was one of the planets of the gods. It was the world of Beerus, the God of Destruction and Whiz.

"Son Goku," the blue skinned humanoid Whiz greeted him, "I see you have arrived. It is good to see you again. I hope Shenlong had already started to explain things to you on your journey so far."

"He did...At first he helped me to neutralize some of the negative energy. Then we got your message and came here."

"You are always welcome Son Goku," Beerus said to him now. "I am looking out for a few sparring matches with you. You should know that I got a deal stronger since we met the last time. But for now we have business to discuss."

The saiyajin responded simply with a smile.

"That is right," Whiz stated. "You are here for two reasons Son Goku. The first and by far more easy one is to help cleansing you of the negative energy you have absorbed after your battle with this abominations called the Shadow Dragons."

"And the other reason?"

For a few short moments he was answered by complete silence from both deities.

"That is the topic we actually wanted to talk with you about," Beerus told him now. "There is a new enemy out there."

"What kind of enemy?" Son Goku wanted to know.

"It is a long story," Whiz replied, "...and a very old one. I will have to start right at the beginning. As you know...we have told you about it before... to remain the balance of the world, there need to be both Gods of Creation and of Destruction. And you also know that there are many different universes and timelines. All of them have their own gods of Creation, that are mostly the Kaios... and of Destruction.

There are also some special cases like the Kaioshin of Time who is watching over the order in the various timelines," he recounted.

"I know. You have actually mentioned all that a long time back."

"I remember. Son Goku, I will tell you a story from a long time ago...back when the Kaios and the other gods of today were first coming to power. There is a threat from ancient times, one so great that it endangered not only one, but all universes, the entire creation."

Goku´s interest was now truly peaked.

"What kind of a threat?"

"I once told you that there are 12 universes. That means twelve main universes. There also exists various timelines of many of them as you also know.

But that is only the half truth. This is actually merely **our** sector of the multiverse...the Domain of the Kaioshin. The number of universes as a whole goes in the thousands...maybe even in the millions.

The truth is our sector had been cut off from the rest eons ago. So we sometimes act as if the twelve universe are all that exists. It were the ancestors of the Kaioshins and the other gods from all 12 of our universes who had once performed a powerful ritual that separated us for all time from the rest...just before they took over as their guardians."

"I don´t understand. Why would they have done something like that?" Son Goku questioned.

"Because they wanted to escape."

"Escape?"

"An old legend say that there is a God, watching not only over one or two universes, but over the entire multiverse. Nobody in our worlds knows with absolute safety if this is true. Even if by the rules of reality it has to.

But we know about his opposite. We know for sure that there is a God of Destruction who resides over the entire multiverse...because of the war he had brought over our universes so long ago.

This being is sometimes also called the Nameless God. His highest ranked and most dangerous followers were the Dark Priests."

* * *

**Side-note:** 17´s technique `Hell´s Globe´ here is inspired by his technique Hells Sphere as Super 17.


	16. Chapter 16: False Peace

**Chapter 16**

_Post GT Universe_

"The Great War... as we call it... took place over 150 million years ago," Whiz explained.

"In the beginning...at least we believe so... the God of Destruction of the multiverse was fulfilling his role, not unlike any other God of Destruction we know of. The only difference was the scale. This being was guiding the destruction of not only planets or even galaxis... but sometimes also that of entire universes and dimensions."

Son Goku´s reaction to this information was a bit different from what you would have expected from a normal person. Instead of being horrified or just shocked, he looked nearly...excited. As if he was looking out to hear more about such a creature... Or even, as if he actually wanted to meet it.

"But at one point... things had changed," Whiz continued. "He was not longer willing to just keep up his part of the ballance...and wanted to dominate the multiverse...all realities..to destroy and recreate it all in his image. It is also possible that he had been planning something like that from the beginning. We don´t know.

The great war that followed, it is said, was raging for centuries or maybe even longer...none of us know for sure exactly."

What he was telling him here, were mostly legends...myths, from a time long before even he came into existence.

"The most infamous and most powerful of his servants during that time were the so called Dark Priests. They were his chief enforcers and executers. Everyone of them was a God Ki User...monsters in their own right... comparable even to Lord Beerus or myself. It is said that they on their own devastated entire realities.

On the other side it is said that the force that opposed the Nameless God itself raised a group of powerful Warriors to protect all universes from the Dark Priests and his other followers. This group became known as the Guardians. Countless Worlds perished as this two forces clashed... entire dimensions collapsed."

"How strong exactly is this God?" Son Goku wanted to know. "It sounds really frightening."

"To be honest...we don´t know. All what we truly know about this being and his followers are old stories and legends. It is said however that unlike we, he is not a god made out of flesh and blood, but something else...pure power... and absolutely immortal."

"What does this even mean? How can you beat someone like that then?"

"Goku, I admit...I have no idea how. Like I said, it are all mostly old stories...legends and myths. To be honest, I am not completely sure how we could even **fight** a being like that.

All what I know is that after some time the fighting became that bad that it threatened to destroy all our local words. And my and the other gods ancestors performed the ritual that separated our universes from all the others."

`I don´t know´, that was a sentence he had to use very often in this conversation. The truth was, he barely truly knew anything about this being. One of the few things he actually knew for sure were the details of the ritual that their ancestors had used to separate their worlds.

"But with some luck, we won´t need to anyway," he continued. "Like I told you, our universes had been separated from the rest eons ago. This creature had not longer direct access to our world. Not directly at least... But recently something had changed," Whiz explained.

Goku was looking at him curiously, waiting for him to continue.

"Some time ago a being had appeared in our domain...a new Dark Priest who had arisen," he said. "He crosses from one universe to the others and is spreading chaos wherever he goes. We don´t know much more about his heritage or his identity. But one thing is clear.

His main goal is to bring back his master to our cluster of universes. For that he first needs to destroy the balance of our reality. And we need to prevent this."

"I guess that is the reason you called me here," Son Goku commented.

Whiz nodded.

"I am planning to put together a group of fighters... a new team of Guardians if you want to call it that...and I want you for it, just like Lord Beerus here."

"Well Son Goku, it seems we both are being recruited," the cat like looking deity Beerus said to him. "Now, how about a sparring match?"

xxxxxxx

_New Timeline_

Peace had returned to the planet Earth of this time...for the moment at least.

In the following days, that were quite ironically very similar to the ones after the Cell Games, celebrations were happening all over the planet. The human race was rejoicing about the destruction of the monster...that meant of course the monster that they actually knew about.

None of them was even aware of the threat coming from Broly and the being known as The Priest...and that they were still out there. And for the moment it was maybe better that they didn´t knew. At least that gave the normal people on this planet some...even if imagined...time of safety.

And there was also another thing that was just the same.

Once again Mister Satan was being celebrated as the world´s savior. As it had turned out, at the same time that the Z-fighters had defeated Ne-Me-Sys, the World Champion had just been send to the area where the monster had last been seen...That meant the place of the last greater battle of the warriors...the one where they had retreated.

So everybody just assumed...and the `Champion´ did very little to correct them. In this case...to be honest... he didn´t even need to claim that he had defeated the menace. The public did it all for him.

In truth, Mister Satan had never actually said that he was the one who had defeated Ne-Me-Sys...not this time. He didn´t need to. Who else could have done it?

True, the other fighters who had been caught on camera fought brave and valuable, sure...whatever strange tricks they had done to match Ne-Me-Sys abilities. But in the end they had fled for their lives.

The Word Champion on the other hand, had prevailed. Or at least they thought so.

There were also two other names that were once again in everyone´s mind, Doctor Gero and the Red Ribbon Army, only in opposite to Mister Satan not in the positive sense...but full of dread.

Now that the connection between Gero, Cell, Ne-Me-Sys, the Red Ribbon Army and the hero called Son Goku had been revealed, everybody was discussing this old topics once again. Once again these names were on everyone´s lips. But now the truth about it all had become known. Or at least most of the truth.

Son Goku, this name had once been one of a well known hero of this world, until he had been completely overshadowed by Mister Satan. He was the winner of the 23. Budokai and finalist of two others.

It was known that he had defeated Piccolo´s son during the final of the 23. and for many people, because of this it was also a given fact to them that he was the one who had defeated the original Piccolo.

Now, not only had this been confirmed, it became known that Son Goku was also the one who had defeated the Red Ribbon Army and ended their Reign of Terror. A true Hero of Earth indeed.

But of course no competition for Mister Satan.

All in all things continued just like they had been before. Only that Mister Satan, as far as it was even possible, was now even more famous than before...The savior of the world twice over now.

This was something that confused Trunks for a short time as he heard it, until he remembered that the incident with Bojack...that Mister Satan also got the credit for... in this world never happened.

So yes, it was only the second time that the Champion supposedly saved the planet. Not that it made much of a difference. The worst that would probably happen was that they had to watch more of the idiot on TV even more than usual.

xxx

Right now though Trunks wasn´t thinking about anything like this. In fact he wasn´t truly thinking at all.

At the moment it was night in West City and he, just a few chambers away from his younger counterpart, his father and his currently two mothers, was fast asleep.

He... just like some of the others... was still recovering from the battle a few days ago. While not physically... a Senzu Bean had taken care of that very quickly... at least mentally. The fight against the mind-controlled Gohan was something he truly **never** wanted to repeat.

A few of the others were in a similar state. All what had happened to them...what they had been able to put aside, at least to some level, as long as the fight was still going on...not they truly felt the full impact of it.

Gohan, 18, himself, Chaozu and most of the others, it had affected them all deeply. It was in Eighteen´s case the loss of her husband, in Gohan´s not only the one that he had been controlled and used against his friends, but the fact that once again people he knew had died and would not coming back.

The loss of family members, friends or even of the control over yourself, was something hard to deal with, no matter how strong you have become physically.

Trunks...the traveller from the future...like so often before, was caught in a dream...in memories of his own past...his own timeline.

Inside his own mind, Trunks was once again back in the world that he came from...in one of the countless battles.

At least in his nightmares...

_xxx_

_He was standing in the middle of a devastated city, reduced to little more than a field of ruins, like so many times before._

_And he was facing the same two opponents who were responsible for all that destruction_

_...and once again he had no chance. The Androids known as 17 and 18 were simply too powerful._

_Beside him was his mentor Gohan. They were fighting side by side. That too, like so many times before._

_They were loosing... like every time._

_They always were, at least deep in his mind, in the imagination of a boy who had grown up under their rule of terror. For a small part of him... the part of him that was still this young child... the Androids would always be invincible._

_In front of him Gohan was locked into a fight with 17, while he himself was struggling with 18. They both were losing ground._

_Gohan was holding himself quite well, at least halfway... at least for the moment. He wasn´t able to land any really decisive hits, yet he wasn´t completely loosing either. But Trunks knew sooner or later his strength would run out. Unlike their opponents, they didn´t have never ending energy._

_He himself however had no chance against the female Android. In opposite to Gohan, he had not reached the SSJ stage yet...and Trunks by himself wasn´t sure if he ever would._

_All he truly did was distracting her...and being slapped around._

_It all happened like it did so often. He could barely follow Eighteen´s movements, even less land a single hit. She was toying with him. That as well... was like always._

_After a few more seconds of struggling, she decided to end it._

_"I am starting to get bored with you kid," she told him._

_She landed a vicious blow at his side that threw him down on the ground. A few more hits and Trunks was not longer able to fight...or even to move. Then she pressed her boot into his back to keep him on the ground while she smiled down on him. For a few moments...then she changed her mind._

_Eighteen grabbed him by the collar and lifted him up instead. To mock him probably like she so often did._

_Then however she did something that took him completely by surprise...and shocked him nearly more than anything else she ever did._

_She brought her face close to his own and kissed him. It was a long drawn out kiss and as much as he hated to admit it, he kind of liked it. But...this was 18...she was his worst enemy. What in the world was she doing?_

_"You know...I always thought you were kind of cute," she told him._

xxx

In this moment Trunks woke up. **What** the Hell was that? he thought.

It was nothing new to him to have nightmares... especially about the Androids. But this?

Since when had he ever dreamt about kissing 18 of all people?

It may have something to do with the fact that she had taken on the habbit of flirting with him ever since her and Seventeen´s return from the dead.

Nobody said that she wasn´t attractive. He admitted she was one of the most beautiful women he had ever met...aside from being a psychotic mass murderer.

There was also the time he had spend with the Eighteen of this timeline. With **her**, he admitted, he got along pretty well. Of course there was the fact that she only recently had lost her husband...his friend...and...Well, what was he thinking about?

But it wasn´t that version he just had a dream of. Or was it? Maybe his subconsciousness was somehow mixing the two versions up. He didn´t knew.

Maybe he just needed some time to relax. All of them probably needed to.

xxxxxxx

Meanwhile, at different places on the planet life once again continued for the greatest part like usual.

One of them was a wide forest area somewhere in the Northern Districts. This woods were part of the Royal Wildlife Park. For the single figure who was right now walking along one of the many pathways, a young man...a young man who was nobody else than Android 17... it was also something else. It was a place where he quite often retreated to, for different reasons...training...exploring...or sometimes even just to relax.

This time it was a bit of all of that. Seventeen was in this moment wandering down one of the many wooded trails of the forest. **His** forest, as he like he admitted, thought of it.

He was actually considering taking the job as a Park Ranger that had been offered to him here.

He had just finished his training exercise for the day just a half hour ago and was now simply trying to enjoy his time out here.

Then, finally...he met another person...and, if he was honest, it was exactly the one he had been hoping for. She had by now, as he also freely admitted, become his favorite human on this world.

"I see you are busy as usual," he addressed the woman kneeling about ten meters in front of him.

She was kneeling a bit aside from the path and watching a couple of does through a looking glass. In the moment she heard his voice however she turned around to him.

"Lapis," she greeted him, her voice sounding more than a bit happy.

The name...the name of his former human self, as he found out some time ago... still sounded quite strange to him. It was no longer who he was. But it was the name she knew him by. He... Android 17... had not told her who he truly was, not yet at least.

"I an glad to see you as well Mari," he replied with a light smile forming on his face.

"Now, have you been thinking about it?" she wanted to know.

"About what?" he asked her with a smirk, feigning ignorance.

Of course he knew exactly what `it´ was. If he was honest, she was another reason why he seriously considered taking the job offer. She was a zoologist who was also working in this National Park, the same area as he would.

The only thing holding him back were his doubts. All that just seemed a bit too normal to him...too human. But he wasn´t human.

He had met her at first at one of his trips some months ago. At first she thought he was a poacher and threatened to report him to the authorities. This had of course only caused him to laugh at her...and caused her to be seriously irritated.

Then however, they began actually talking with each other...At first only because this particular human had caught his interest. He found her amusing. And then... after some time he had to admit he had begun to truly like her.

xxxxxxx

_Somewhere else_

The wounded Saiyan had by now managed to come back on his legs and walk again. Not that it meant much since he was somewhere in the middle of hundreds of miles of wilderness.

Just where Kakarot´s blast had send him.

Broly was still recovering.

Kakarot...it was as if alone remembering this name caused him pain. The one who did...

He had defeated him, twice...**him**. How could this be?

He was the Legendary Super Sayajin...He was meant to be the strongest of them all. He was meant to be incincible.

That was what his father had told him since he was a child...that was what everybody had believed who ever met him, usually right before dieing through his hand.

That was what the power that was flowing through every part of his body had been whispering into his mind.

So how could this be? How could this weak-born had gathered enough power to surpass him like that?

The damned Saiyan Prince and this thing...this machine, they were matching him in power...**him**. But Kakarot...Kakarot...he had treated him like a little child. He had defeated him like he was nothing.

This was intolerable. He was born to be the strongest. If he was not the strongest than he was worthless.

**Failure**, a voice shot through his mind. It sounded remarkable like his own.

_"You are not the Legendary Super Saiyajin," it said..."You **are** nothing."_

Shut up, he thought. Broly wanted nothing more than to shout out his rage. But the damage to his body made it painful to even move.

Not that it kept him from doing it...One moment later Broly´s hateful scream halled through the air...and he paid for it when the pain in his entire body suddenly intensified.

And he sank back unto his knees, spitting out a few traces of blood. His hate and anger became now even greater, mixed with...humiliation. How could this happen to him...to **him**?

_"Idiot," the same voice said to him. "You knew that you were seriously injured. But you just had to let out a really loud roar, right? Just to show the world that the mighty Super Saiyajin is angry. And there is not even anyone here to hear you anyway. Truly, you are pityfull."  
_

`Shut up, shut up, shut up,´ he thought again angrily.

_"Not wanting to hear the truth, right? Kakarot was right, you know? being born with the highest powerlevel means nothing if you doesn´t make anything out of it."_

_"And I thought you were the Legendary Super Saiyajin." _The voice now suddenly sounded like the one of his father Paragas._ "But it seems I was wrong. You are just a mutation, a freak of nature that I had sired by accident."_

`Shut up father,´ Broly thought now in complete rage. He barely registered that he also started to speak loud as well. "You have no right to tell me anything you weakling. You are long dead. I killed you myself."

_"Yes, killing weaklings...that was all you were always actually good for," the original voice was speaking again, the one who sounded just like himself. "But any actual opponent...Kakarot...Vegeta...Kakarot´s son...the Namek? you failed every time. Have you ever even killed someone with a powerlevel over 10.000? Instead you have lost and not only that...you became a mental wreck. You are truly a failure."_

`I will kill you´ Broly raged against the voice in his head.

_"You fool...I **am** you. I am the last bit of you that is still clinging to sanity. I am the pround saiyan warrior that you were meant to be...before you degraded into a rabid animal."_

`Stop it..."Stop it, stop it...**stop it**," he repeated, while starting to clench his own head.

_"See what I mean?" the voice asked him. "Imagine anyone would see you like this. What do you think they would think of you?"_

"No, no... I will...I will not let this stand," Broly growled by still kneeling on the ground. "I will defeat them. I will kill them. I will kill them all."

_"Yes, and what will you do? You could train, I guess. But would that truly help you? Whenever you met them, they had made great progress from the last time. Vegeta was already matching you...Kakarot had far surpassed you...and the others, who knows? By the time you have fully recovered and actually improved...who knows how strong they will be **then**?  
_

"I see you are deeply involved into a conversation with yourself," someone addressed him...someone who had suddenly appeared right next to him. As he turned his head, he recognized the same masked being that has spoken to him before. Someone else who had managed to outmaneuver him.

Before, before he had been beaten and humiliated, he would have just blamed it on bad luck on his part. But now he could not longer deny... he had to consider that this guy might also be stronger than him...another one, he thought.

_"Well, it seems at least you are starting to fall out of your arrogance for a bit,"_ his inner voice now said.

"Stop it," Broly said once again loud.

"Now, if you have a bit of time," the robed being said to him, "maybe we can exchange a few words."

Behind him the Saiyan saw two other figures standing. At the first look the two looked like nothing but two human teenagers, a young boy and a girl. But even the Legendary Super Saiyajin knew that sometimes looks could be deceiving.

He remembered the time when his father had forced him to walk around pretending to be nothing but a low-class warrior...a weakling... as part of his plan to fool Prince Vegeta.

If this two were with this being here however, they were very likely not normal teenagers. In fact they were Trunk´s timeline´s versions of 17 and 18...but he could not have known that.

**Not **that he cared in the first place. There was only **one** thing on his mind...revenge.

"Why do you even bother?" one of the two figured, the dark haired male teenager, asked the robed man. "This guy looks as if he is already finished."

"What did you say?" Broly growled at him, despite the fact that he was barely able to walk. "You dare?"

"Oh, do you wanna fight?" 17 mocked him. "Right now it seems I could take you with one hand."

"Just wait...until I have my strength back," the saiyajin threatened.

Seventeen only grinned at him.

"By that time...if you even manage that...I will have reached my own full power. And then I would crush you under my boot anyway."

"You little..." Broly called out angrily, not really worrying about the pain his body was in anymore.

"I hardly believe that I agree with 17 here," Eighteen told them. "This guy had refused your offer before... and by now he had even been defeated and beaten into an inch of his life. Why come to him again."

The Saiyan now gave another angry look to the girl. Here he was now, being spoken to like this by creatures he should normally crush under his heal. But in his current state...even he realized that...he had no chance at all.

"That is enough," The Priest spoke up, looking first in Seventeen´s direction and the back at the wounded Saiyan. "I am here for a single reason. Tell me, now that you had your... `meeting´ with Son Goku, have you changed your mind about my offer to join me?"

The Saiyajin was looking at him for a few moments, before he actually started to chuckle.

"I have only one interest in the world...and that is my **revenge**," he exclaimed. "I will turn this planet into dust and every friend of Kakarot on it. I am the Legendary Super Saiyajin, I am not working for or with anybody," he hissed.

"I see," The Priest replied. "If this is your decision. Then we will leave you," he stated. "If you want revenge...I guess you could always just blow up the planet along with all of them. You wouldn´t even need to let it come to a fight. I guess that is the ideal method...for a coward," he added.

Broly just glared at him.

"I am **not** a coward," he declared angrily. "I will crush them all with my bare hands."

"Just what I wanted to hear," The Priest said, actually managing to sound happy, despite the mask confusing his voice. "I would like to give you one last gift." He reached his hand out to the Saiyan and send out a strange kind of energy.

Broly could feel how it flooded his body and how his wounds suddenly, in incredible speed, started to heal and disappear.

Moments later the Legendary Super Saiyajin was standing nearly just like before his latest fight that ended with his defeat. In fact he felt better than ever before. His power actually seemed to have grown even more.

Broly felt recovered in every single way.

"You know about the Saiyan´s ability known as zenkei, an drastic increase of power after an leathal injury. Normally this has only a minimal effect on a Super Saiyajin," The Priest explained to him. "You however are an exception. Thanks to your unique physiology, it affects your SSJ forms in the same way as your regular one. You are now stronger than ever before."

"You," he sneered at the two pseudo teenagers who were still standing a short distance behind the robed man. But the two just continued to smile at him, which infuriated him only more.

"See 18, so typical Saiyajin. First they are nearly lying in their death-bed and whining about it...but as soon as they get a free gratis power-up, they are right back to playing the big **I am**," Seventeen commented sarcastically.

"That is enough," The Priest said once again, "both of you." He looked at 17 and at Broly. Suddenly there was something about his presence that was able to intimidate even the Legendary Super Saiyajin.

"I helped you to reach a greater power so you could fight Son Goku and his friends...not for petty scrabbles with my allies," he declared.

There was one thing becoming clear to Broly in this moment, after he had dealt with Kakarot and his group, this man would be his next target.

"Tell me...**why** did you do that?" he asked him.

Yes...that was the question. Why would this man help him become more powerful when he had refused his offer and he must know that there is a chance he might just decide to come after him next?

Did he truly think Broly would be thankful to him? If yes he would truly see what was coming to him. But he didn´t seem like that kind of a fool. So why?

"Why you ask?" The Priest answered. "You could just call it a test. I am looking out to see who will survive, you...**or them**."

"I will destroy them all," Broly stated, "...and then I will come for you."

"I am waiting," the Priest said to him. His distorted voice sounded even colder than usual.

Then he made a light gesture and he and his two compatriots suddenly disappeared.

Left was only Broly...now back in his best state. Even the voice in his mind had become quiet...at least for now.

He flew up into the sky.

Now he would go and find Kakarot´s friends...and like before he knew the best way to find them...That was just to draw their attention and they would come to him.

xxx

"Was this really a good idea?" 18 asked The Priest as they reappeared somewhere else a moment later.

"Broly, as he is now, is a promising next test for them," he replied. "Believe me...I have great ideas for them...especially your old friend Trunks."

xxxxxxx

At another place on the planet Earth, a completely different event was taking place...**really** different.

But this event as well involved a Saiyan.

It was Son Gohan, who had only a few months ago started to attend High School in Satan City and was currently going on a school-trip together with the rest of his class.

They all were right now sitting in a bus that was driving through the mountain areas at the border to the Central to the Western Districts. It was a landscape that at the first look was very similar to his home, but was in fact thousands of miles away from it.

They would spend the next week in a cabin up here in the local sky-resort. Their entire class would get a trainings course in winter-sports and would be able to spend the entire rest of their time how ever they want.

At first he didn´t actually want to come, but his mother convinced him that it might be a good idea to spend some time with his fellow students and before another background for awhile.

Gohan´s thought were to some part still stuck on what had happened to him a few days ago. When Ne-Me-Sys had taken over his body and used him against his friends. He had only fragmented memories of that short time left. But that bit was still more than enough.

He saw himself atacking his friends, heard Ne-Me-Sys talking through his mouth. Gohan was only happy that it was over.

Maybe this trip would really be a good chance for him to get away from everything for a while.

Next to him were sitting some of his classmates, the ones he had gotten to know best during the last months and who had become his friends, Erasa, Sharpner... and in a seat on the other side, Videl... none other than the daughter of Mister Satan...**the** Mister Satan.

Ever since `her fathers´ great victory from a few days ago, she was nearly constantly swarmed by other students. Of course being who she was, drawing a crowd of `admirers´ was nothing new to her. Alone because of the name of her father.

In opposite to what some may think though, she was by far not happy about this. Videl, as Gohan had got to know her by now, was a girl who wanted to be recognized for herself and not for the deeds of her parent.

He had to say, she was in a surprisingly positive way different from her father here. He admitted he liked her.

She, Erasa and Sharpner had all become his friends...even if they didn´t actually knew about him...didn´t really knew him...at least than it came to his powers and his saiyan heritage.

It was in this moment when Gohan felt it, the ki flaring up in a large distance, it was a power he knew all too well.

They had known that he was still alive somewhere. He knew that Vegeta and Trunks had actually spend some time trying to hunt him down. But so far they didn´t find him.

Damn it, Gohan thought. Now his power seemed to be even greater than before. It should have taken him days more to recover. What in the world had happened? Did someone help him?

It didn´t matter now. Broly was back...and they needed to deal with him. His sudden recovery...how ever it had happened... had obviously given him even greater power than before... and his energy was moving.

It seemed to be coming closer to his location.

xxxxxxx

Hundreds of miles away the other Sayans, including the time-traveler Trunks, were sensing the same thing.

* * *

The Ne-Me-Sys storyline had come to an end with the last chapter. For the next chapters other villains will come in the spotlight. While The Priest will be the main antagonist of the entire story.


	17. Chapter 17: Clash

**Chapter 17**

Broly was coming closer, Gohan could sense it. He knew that it was somewhere around the Northern Areas where his father had defeated the Super Saiyan the last time.

Now he was moving southwards, that meant he would cross or at least come very close to the place where he was now. Broly´s power had increased drastically once again...

...and he was here trapped inside a moving bus, sitting right beside his classmates, who had all no idea who he truly was.

So far his attending of Orange Star High School had been going quite well. The only small exception would be Videl´s quite annoying habbit of stalking and spying on him. She seemed to know that something was not normal about him and did everything to find out what it was.

This became a bit complicated since Gohan had, usually in his SSJ form, prevented a number of crimes in Satan City. Under the citizens he became unintentionally known as a hero and crimefighter called the Golden Warrior then.

With Videl following him around he had actually began wearing a mask and an actual costume to prevent anyone - especially her - from recognizing him. So came it that he actually became a Super Hero, calling himself The Great Saiyaman. But that was, as he said, only a minor problem.

Maybe he could just stay silent and as always just pretend to be a normal student, he thought. Maybe he would just oversee him. As far as they knew Broly never learned to sense powerlevels and even then he could just hide his ki.

No, who was he kidding. This was Broly...the guy who he had once seen blowing up a planet just for the lollz. If they actually met him, he would probably destroy the bus and everyone inside just for fun... normal high-school students or not.

He hoped secretly that the others would made it here fast enough... Otherwise the only way for him to defend himself...and the others, would surely blow his cover.

Damn, it couldn´t have been any worse, he thought.

xxxxxxx

He was not the only one who had sensed Broly´s return.

In Capsule Corp in West City, Mirai Trunks realized as well what was happening.

At the moment he was the only Saiyajin present in CC.

Vegeta was somewhere, scouting the planet for Broly...ironically the same being who had just appeared now. The Saiyan Prince had announced that **he** would be the one to find and bring the LSSJ down for good. Of course after he would have recovered enough to actually fight.

Son Goku had returned to the Afterlife, after saying a final goodbye to his family, much to Chichi´s grieve. But it couldn´t be changed. The Kaioshins had also returned to their home-world after Ne-Me-Sys defeat.

While it was true that The Priest had originally been the actual reason the they came to Earth, along with Buu who had as it looks already been stopped, he and the Future Androids had vanished after their last confrontation and they were not longer able to find them. So he had either left this dimension or he was hiding his presence.

Whatever it was, they would return as soon as they found signs of his presence again. But until then they had other things to take care of. After all the now two Kaioshins were the overseers of the entire known space.

Son Goten and the younger Trunks had simply left this afternoon...flying off - as they had called it - to an adventure trip. That despite Bulma´s warnings that Broly was still somewhere out there.

But of course they didn´t listen...and of course that warning had only been half-hearted anyway. They all knew Broly would need at least another week to recover from the damage Son Goku had caused to him, so nobody was actually that worried.

Or at least they thought they knew.

How in the world was he able to come back this quickly? Trunks thought. To that came that he had obviously grown stronger after healing from his injuries.

During the last days, he had to admit, he was in something of a conflicting situation...regarding his presence here in this past. Should he stay for longer or return to the future right away?

On one side he knew that the longer he stayed the more he had the chance to train and become even stronger as he already was. It was something he could really need if Beby and his M2 Army should actually come to his Earth.

But on the other he didn´t want to leave his friend Sixteen completely alone in his timeline.

Like it looked it was a good idea to stay, at least for a while.

As he entered the kitchen he saw the two Bulma´s sitting together at the breakfast table, involved in a conversation.

"Mother... and ahm Bulma," he greeted them quickly, as he was moving quickly through the room.

"Trunks, what is...?" the younger Bulma asked him. She knew the expression on his face all too well... And even if not, the fact that he was practically running out of the room was all too telling.

"We know that expression perfectly," his own mother told him. "What is going on?"

"It is Broly," he said.

"Already?" the younger Bulma exclaimed. "Your father told me he would be out for at least another few days."

"I don´t know either how he has recovered this quickly," he answered. "But we have to take him down quickly. I need to go now."

"Of course," the younger Bulma said.

"Be careful," the older told him.

"I will," he replied and run out of the door.

Trunks just came out of the building and instantly flew up in the sky. He moved with full speed into the direction where he sensed Broly´s energy.

It was a shame that Son Goku had not been able to kill him. But by what the Kaioshin had told them, if **he** did it - being dead himself - it would have only made things worse in the long run.

Now they had to take care of him for good. He knew Gohan was the closest to him. In fact he seemed practically right next to him... maybe only a few miles away from Broly´s position.

But Trunks wasn´t completely sure if he could beat him by himself, not with Broly´s increased power. He had complete trust in Gohan of course, but this mutated Super Saiyajin was someone who should not be underestimated. Alone how easily he had gotten a power-boost showed how dangerous he was.

Gohan was wrong in one point though. The situation could have been worse than he thought...and it **was **worse.

The younger Trunks and Goten had noticed Broly´s ki as well. After the first short outbreak of incredible power, it was now considerable lower. The Z-fighters knew that was because he wasn´t using his LSSJ form right now and hadn´t powered up at all.

The two young Super Saiyajins on the other side seemed to either not fully realize... or simply ignore this.

Overconfident and fearless as they were, they decided to get closer...to have a better look. At least they were smart enough to keep their energy low so that they wouldn´t instantly be detected.

xxxxxxx

Broly´s ki was coming closer and closer. Bad luck had to happen of course and he was coming exactly their way.

His classmates were still blissfully unaware of the danger they were all in.

He could only hope that the insane Saiyajin would just oversee the bus on his way. That he would just pass them in a few miles distance...far away not to see them at all.

But he knew he could not simply sit here and hope for such luck. The Cell Games, the fight against Ne-Me-Sys, Freezer, he knew all too well, things were seldom going `just right´ for him and the others.

It was then when he received an even greater shock. He felt to other ki signatures coming closer to their location. But it were not the ones he had hoped for.

Goten and Trunks, they were coming here. These fools, he would have never thought that they would be **this** stupid.

Maybe he should have known. Both were strong, incredible strong for their age, but that had also made them cocky and overconfident. It was probably a good thing that they had left them out of the entire business with Ne-Me-Sys. But now he couldn´t help but worry.

"Gohan," he heard a voice speaking to him, "...Gohan is everything alright?" Erasa had asked him, he realized.

He realized that he had just been sitting there, starring at nothing.

"Yes Erasa, everything´s okay. I have just been thinking about something."

"You looked for a moment as if something was really worrying you," she stated.

"She is right you know... you looked really troubled," Videl spoke up.

"No...no, it is nothing," he assured them nervously.

"Really? You can tell us when something is **bothering** you," she said. "You aren´t keeping anything from us aren´t you?" she asked him.

For everyone around them it sounded like she was joking a bit. But he knew all too well that she was not. This was only another way for her of fishing for information.

Great, Videl and her constant questioning again, he thought. That was truly about the last thing he needed right now.

And Broly was still coming closer.

xxxxxxx

Trunks was still moving with full speed to the place where he felt the energies of Gohan, Broly... and now also of Son Goten and his own younger self.

Vegeta had also sensed what was going on... and cursed loudly. Sadly the Saiyan Prince was right now on the other side of the globe, in search for the same being that had just reappeared. That meant of all of them it would take him the longest to reach them.

As it looked it had been a mistake to fly around the world looking for his opponent. He should have just waited for him to come out.

xxxxxxx

"Are you coming Goten? We are nearly there," Trunks said to his companion.

"Yes yes, I am coming," his friend replied. "Do you really think that is a good idea Trunks?"

"Don´t you want to see the source of this energy?" he asked him.

"I do...but what if it´s dangerous?"

"Ahh, don´t be such a whimp," the eight year old Trunks told him. "We are very strong too after all. And your brother is there as well. If it is truly dangerous he will back us up, right? You trust your brother don´t you?"

"Of course I do," Goten exclaimed. He didn´t realize the subtle manipulation his friend tried on him by questioning his trust in his brother.

"Righ, then come on," Trunks told him. "Let us find it."

Like his older self, he and his friend were now flying at their full speed.

It was only minutes later that they had reached their target. They could already make `him´ out at the horizon. It was a single humanoid looking figure, flying southwards... Trunks and Goten noticed that his hair was glowing golden... a Super Saiyajin? Was this this Broly they had heard his father and Son Gohan talking about?

"Where is Son Gohan?" Goten asked.

"I am sure he is close by. We have felt his energy here a short time ago, right?"

"Yes," he responded.

In the moment the figure spotted them however the figure instantly reacted... and headed straight to them.

It had been a stupid idea from the beginning.

They could barely dodge it as the approaching figure fired a ki blast at them that missed them by a half meter and vanished at the horizon. But he was already firing at them again.

Trunks threw his own energy ball at him, but Broly just deflected it with his left arm.

They could now clearly see the angry, nearly crazy, expression in his face. It slowly dawned on them that it was a bad idea to come here.

xxxxxxx

Son Gohan was short to breaking out in panic now. Broly was here.

During all that the bus continued it´s way on a road along the side of a mountain. The group of High School students, teacher and the driver were still completely unaware of the danger they were all in.

He could feel his energy only a few kilometers away. He was flying right over this area.

And what was even worse, he was not the only one. The energies of Goten and Trunks were now so close by that they seemed nearly at the same place.

Broly´s ki suddenly skyrocked. If he wasn´t already in his LSSJ form, then at least in his highest regular SSJ. He had noticed them, there was no doubt.

That meant he didn´t have a choice anymore. Damn it, Trunks Goten... you idiots, he thought, you have just exposed me in front of my entire class.

In this moment the road before them exploded. The driver instantly panicked and stepped on the brakes as hard as he could.

The shock went through everyone, especially the teacher and some of the students who had barely managed to hold themselves on their seats.

"What is going on?" someone asked.

"It´s an earthquake," one student shouted in the background.

But it was worse than an earthquake. A stray ki blast had hit the road.

It was in this moment that they were all were getting the shock of their lives. All of them except Gohan, who had gotten this same shock already a minute earlier.

Before them in the air... the saw three floating figures - fighting with each other. Or better said mostly one was throwing punches and the other two were doing their best to avoid his strikes. This two, they realized, were only small children.

All three of them were flying...and all of them had strange yellow glowing hair - like the Golden Warrior, like the fighters from the Cell Games, like the ones who were fighting Ne-Me-Sys.

And they were right in front of them. A few of them had not believed the stories... about people being able to fly, shooting lightbeams from their hands? Some of them blamed it just on special effects on TV.

But now they were seeing it right before their eyes.

**This** was it, Gohan thought.

"Teacher, I have to get outside," he said.

The man turned around to him, looking a bit surprised.

"Mister Son," he replied after a short moment, "as you see it is dangerous outside. I fear you will have to wait. Please get back to your seat."

In this moment Gohan saw Broly landing a vicious looking blow on his brother that send him flying downwards... and he finally was at the end of his patience.

"I said let me out of here," he shouted. "Open the door, now or I rip it out." While he said this his ki begann to burst out. It became visible and flared up all around his body.

The others could only stare in complete shock.

"Go...Gohan," Erasa stammered.

Videl was only looking at him with an unreadable expression.

The teacher only nodded...and the bus-driver finally unlocked the door.

As soon as Gohan had stepped outside he unleashed the full extent of his ki and powered up to his full strength. He knew it had no sense to hide anymore...and lifted of the ground as well, flying in incredible speed in the direction of the one-sided battle.

Now the collective minds of his classmates and teacher...even the one of the driver...were thrown into yet another loop.

"That...how can that be...Son Gohan. He, he is... one of **`them´**," Sharpner said completely perplexed.

"I knew it," Videl whispered.

He reached the other three saiyans in less than a second. In the moment Broly wanted to throw a greenish shimmering ball of ki at Son Goten, he landed a hard uppercut at his jaw and send both Broly and the attack he had prepared flying in different directions.

"Son Gohan," his brother shouted as he saw him.

"Is everything alright with you?" he asked.

Goten nodded.

"Yes."

But he caught himself very quickly and stopped his movement in mid-air, glaring at them once again. In first line, Gohan realized, he was staring at Son Goten.

"Kakarot..." he said. "You look just like Kakarot."

"What is he talking about Gohan?" Goten asked him.

"He means that you look very much like our father," he replied grimly.

"His sons...you are his sons. I will kill you. I will present him your dead bodies," the saiyan murmured. But he was loud enough for Gohan to understand. "And then I will** reunite** you," he shouted...

...and in this moment he transformed again. His hair turned now green instead of the usual gold, his his eyes became completely white - In front of them he entered his Legendary form.

He looked menacing like nothing else the two children had ever seen...and the energy he was now radiating was nothing but frightening.

"Son Gohan...is that this Broly you have been talking about?" Trunks asked him nervously.

"Yes, that is Broly," he answered.

Before they could say something else the insane saiyan had fired another ki blast at them, which they this time managed to dodge quite easily.

But right then their opponent charged forward at them with an angry growl and rammed his fist into Gohan´s stomach. Taken off guard, since he had just made sure that his brother and Trunks were not hit by the shot.

The force of the blow pushed him good ten meters back and the pain stunned him for a few moments. But he revovered very quickly and countered.

Broly catched his fist and stopped it before it reached him, but he couldn´t avoid the kick that Gohan send at him right afterwards and got a quite painful hit in the side.

"Goten, Trunks, stay back," Gohan yelled at them.

"We can help you," Trunks shouted.

"No, you can not," he replied.

The two opponents continued to exchange blows. So far they seemed more or less evenly matched.

Broly however had the advantage that in this form his energy was never running out. In fact his body was producing more and more in every second. To Gohan´s luck, the Legendary SSJ had already reached the limit of the power he could channel.

The two continued to struggle with each other for another minute and a half, without either of them getting the upper hand.

But Broly had another advantage over his opponent. There were actually people close by that Gohan wanted to protect.

Practically during the entire exchange had he tried to stay between the maniac he was fighting against and the two saiyan children behind him.

But now Broly had spotted something else. While Gohan had shielded Goten and Trunks from him, they had - by sheer bad luck - come to a position from where he could see the road...and the vehicle on the ground.

He grinned as he saw the bus with the highschool students - some of them had by now come outside and were standing on the road, others were still sitting inside - who were staring up at them.

"Hey, son of Kakarot...how about a little game," he exclaimed, as he formed another green globe of energy in his right hand... and threw it down at Gohan´s classmates.

"No...don´t..." he shouted, but it was already too late. Broly had thrown it with a manic laughter.

Gohan moved as quickly as he could to intercept the attack. He reappeared right between the bus and the incoming energy-ball - to the astonishment of the other students who saw him doing it - He catched it with both hands and smashed it away, sending it flying harmlessly up into the sky.

But Broly had only been waiting for this. In this moment he unleashed a powerful ki blast, his Omega Buster, and fired it at the distracted Son Gohan.

As he sensed it, he desperately tried to block. He knew if he didn´t stop it, it would hit the ground and cause who know how much damage to the planet.

xxxxxxx

Trunks had arrived in the area where the had sensed the others and Broly.

What he found was more or less what he had expected. But certainly not what he had hoped for.

Gohan and Broly were fighting, while his own younger self and Son Goten were standing aside - for the moment at least.

But Gohan looked like he was in a bad shape. His clothes were partly burned and he was holding his side, when he was not using his arms to block Broly´s attacks.

He had to think about the Gohan of his own timeline as he lost his arm.

xxx

Gohan had managed to stop Broly´s last attack... barely. But he had injured his arm in the process...and he lost far to much energy in his attempt to protect the others.

He knew his chances were more than bad now.

But the good news was that he sensed Trunks approaching. He could take over for now... and he himself could concentrate on shielding the children and his fellow students from this maniac.

"Son Gohan," he could hear the older version of Trunks calling to him.

"It´s alright," he answered, "but I have taken a full blast when I tried to protect the others. Can you take over here?"

"The hell I can," Trunks called out. He transformed into a SSJ3...and charged at Broly.

In this form, Trunks power even surpassed his. But they knew that he could only hold this level for a limited time.

xxxxxxx

_A unknown timeline, but very similar to the ones we know... the future...a few years `earlier´_

It was a world not unlike - or better said nearly identical to the one Trunks came from.

Like in his timeline Son Goku returned from Namek after defeating Freezer... and like in his Freezer returned and he had to fight him again when he finally returned to Earth and defeated him and his father King Cold for good.

Like in his, a few years later Goku fell ill from the heart-virus and died.

And like in his the Androids came...and nearly all of the Z-fighters died in the battle against them. Only the nine year old Son Gohan survived. Beside him there would only be the newborn son of Bulma and Vegeta, just like in the other reality.

xxx

The first appearance of the Androids called Seventeen and Eighteen was now nearly 14 years ago. Since then they had been devastating the Earth. They destroyed one city after the other...hitting everywhere without warning...and slaughtering the citizens for fun.

By now the population of the planet had been reduced to barely more than half of what it had been before the Androids first appeared...and the killing continued.

Right now the two of them were raiding a middle-sized town in the Southern Districts... and `raiding´ meant in this case blasting and burning it to the ground.

Flying above the city-center, Android 17 had just blown up a large super-market and 18 a gas-station that exploded in a large ball of fire.

Then they landed, directly on the main street, right in front of a large crowd who had been desperately trying to get away from them. The panic that had already long broken out, now blew any limits.

These people knew they were dead. Nobody escaped the Androids from this close. But they were still clinging on any if so small chance to survive.

17 and 18 were using small - extremely low powered - ki blasts, fired from their fingertips... killing them one by one. But their hands were moving incredible fast, quicker as the eye of an average human could even see. In only a few seconds people died by the dozens.

They could have easily destroyed the entire street...the entire town... with one move of their hands if they wanted, but they were purposely drawing this out. The Androids barely ever used their full destructive potential. That would be not so much fun.

It was a game. While they were firing at them they were counting the number of the individual humans they had killed. Just like they often counted buildings, streets or entire districts of towns they had blown up.

It was all a game to them.

After less than one minute the two Androids were standing in the middle of a field of dead bodies. As they were about to finish off the last three surviving humans however, they were interrupted.

Another ki blast collided with the last one Eighteen had just fired and send it astray.

"Look who is there 17," she remarked.

Son Gohan and Trunks had appeared. The two demi-saiyans landed directly in front of them. They were the only ones in this world who were standing against them. They were the only ones who could even moderately challenge them.

But still they were loosing.

"I ask myself if they will ever learn that they have no chance against us. But - well - this guys had never been the smartest, right?" her brother replied in the same mocking tone.

This was one of the small, but in the long run major, differences between this reality and a certain other... In this world Son Gohan was still alive, while in the other one he was killed nearly one year ago. This one had not been crippled either and still had both of his arms.

And this small differences were causing greater and greater consequences in the long run. For the good and the bad. The first was that Trunks had not become a SSJ on that day. He had achieved the transformation only recently. So he was weaker that his counterpart in the other timeline. On the other side Son Gohan was still alive and able to help him.

In this world Trunks had stayed his student and was never been forced to stand by himself. People who would have been dead otherwise were still alive - and the other way around, people who would have been dead were still alive because of this.

In this moment the Androids were facing two Super Saiyajins - two Super Saiyajins who were losing against them. Just like it happened nearly every time before.

Out of them only Gohan was able to hold himself against the Androids... sometimes. The truth was they had lost the majority of the fights in the past - badly for the most part. Some times they had reached something like a draw, even fewer they had managed to get the upper hand for a few moments.

In the end however, it always came the same way... the never ending energy of the Androids always won out. Just like it did this time.

They were fighting side by side, one pair against the other. 17 had just punched Trunks down into the ground and Gohan was now getting exhausted and was quickly loosing his strength.

xxx

It was now that a new change in this timeline came to place. And this change had nothing to do with the Son Gohan of this world or his student.

It was a single new being had entered this dimension, a being that had never been part of this universe before - A traveller between the dimensions.

It was the same being who a few years afterwards would appear in another `Future Timeline´, where he would temporally shatter the bounderies to the Afterlife and release the dead... before he would follow the Trunks of this world to the past timeline.

But all that would happen `later´. Right now he had his eyes on something else...or rather someone.

xxx

17 and 18 had just won the fight. Trunks was lying beaten up on the ground.

It was in this moment that the stranger appeared - out of nowhere. He had just teleported to a place a few meters from them, right behind the two Androids.

The menacing figure in a black cloak, with a demonic looking mask covering it´s face was looking at them wordlessly.

They all were more than just surprised.

Son Gohan and Trunks were also shocked because they couldn´t sense any energy from this stranger. But he certainly didn´t look like another Android.

Seventeen and Eighteen of course were not impressed. They had beaten the most powerful beings on this planet - destroyed most of them and allowed the last few to live only for their personal amusement.

This bizarre looking guy was surely nothing special. It wouldn´t be the first time they had eccentrics and nutjobs coming to challenge them. Not even the teleportation bothered them. By their information Son Goku had been able to do it as well after all.

"Now, who might you be?" 17 questioned. "Is that a friend of you Son Gohan?"

"Believe me, I have never seen him before," the saiyan stated grimly.

The two Androids turned now around to the stranger. They were standing between him and the couple of half-saiyans.

"Tell me, who are you?" 17 asked now firmly. He and 18 were looking at him with a mixture of curiosity...and amusement.

"I am a traveller between the worlds. I have come here to find you... You can call me...The Priest," the figure answered.

"Really?" Seventeen asked now with a mixture of excitement and mocking.

"Did you think someone with my abilities is from this planet?" the stranger replied. To support his point he suddenly moved several meters in the blink of an eye and was now standing directly in front of them. "As I understand it, you have killed all the ones who had them, except this two of course," he said in the direction of the two saiyans.

Gohan was intensely watching the scene. He had a bad feeling about this here.

"So you have come here just to see us?" Eighteen questioned.

"I am here to make you an offer...all of you," he said with a side-glance to Gohan and Trunks, who was still lying on the ground and struggled to stand up again... Gohan was just moving to help him.

"What could **you** have to offer to us?" 18 asked.

"Transport, for one. Despite all your power you are trapped on this single planet," he stated. He was speaking in a low volume, so that the two half-saiyans could not understand what exactly he was saying. "You are the strongest beings on this world, it´s absolute rulers."

17 an 18 grinned.

"You say it," the male Android replied confidently.

"But you know as good as me that in the way you destroy everything, sooner or later will be nothing left but a liveless wasteland...and what will you do then? I can open you the door to other worlds. I can let you continue what you are doing here in a way you can not even imagine.

Instead of devastating one planet, why not a dozen...or a hundred? I can give you that chance. All you need to do is become my partners."

The Androids exchanged a short look... before they burst out into laughing.

"Really...partners?" Eighteen said. "You are really funny. Maybe we should keep you around for some time."

"That is not everything. Are you aware that Doctor Gero had never given you access to your full potential power? You are strong...very. But you are still nothing compared what you **could** have been.

I can help you **reach** this power... without experimentation, without surgery."

Something in the expression of the Androids changed as he said this.

"Listen pal, I don´t know where you get your information from," 17 told him, "but we **are** already the ultimate beings. Our power is supreme. Nobody can **hope** to stand against us...Nobody **can** be stronger than us."

The manic gleam in the expression of the Android told The Priest everything he needed to know.

"And about your offer to bring us to other planets," 18 continued. "We have a better idea. How about you bring us to your space-ship and then we force you to show us how it works?... and **then** we can do it all by ourselves."

"I see," The Priest replied. "It seems you are not the Seventeen and Eighteen I am looking for. You are far too arrogant in this timeline..." He lifted one hand and pointed a finger at 17 "...and you don´t understand **anything**."

Split-seconds later he had fired a blast at the Android...from the tip of his finger. But the `meek´ attack pierced right through the chest of the `most powerful being on this planet´.

17´s expression had only enough time to change from cold anger and arrogance to complete shock, before he fell down dead.

18 could only stare at the stranger in astonishment and horror.

"You...you have killed him. That...that is impossible," she stammered - right before The Priest fired on her as well and disposed of her in a similar manner.

The two half-saiyans could only look at the scene slack-jawed. They had been fighting 14 years to defend their world from this two menaces, loosing against them again and again... and this stranger had destroyed them without any effort and in a matter of seconds.

But Gohan had still a bad feeling. Who said that this stranger was any less dangerous than the Androids? What had he been talking with them about anyway?

"Incredible...you...you have defeated them," Trunks called out happily, still not quite believing it.

"It is unbelievable. You have saved us all," he exclaimed.

The stranger, through his mask, was only looking at the **boy**, who was clinging at the side of his master. Taking in everything about him, every word, every expression.

"Thank you," the young Trunks said to him.

Right then The Priest raised his hand once again...and fired at Son Gohan, completely disintigrating his body before the already injured saiyan warrior had even the chance to move a limb.

Trunks could only stare at the place his master, his friend, his brother, had been standing a moment before.

"You...you killed Son Gohan," he shouted at him angrily now. "Why?"

"You are not the one I am looking for," the stranger just told him. His voice sounded cold even through the distortion of his mask.

Then he pointed his hand downwards...and fired again...right at the planet they were standing on.

Then he teleported away again.

Seconds later the planet Earth of this timeline exploded...and the young half-saiyan Trunks and everyone else who existed on this planet, were wiped from existence.

The Priest however turned his attention to another dimension.

* * *

The last part showed a glympse of The Priest and what he was doing before his appearance in the `original´ Mirai timeline.

The fight against Broly will be continued in the next chapter.

Thank you for the reviews to everyone who left one.


	18. Chapter 18: Legend s Fate

**Chapter 18**

Trunks was slowly but surely forcing his opponent backwards.

He landed one hard blow on Broly´s face and another one at his side, forcing the `Legendary´ SSJ to draw back even further...and continued his treatment of him.

For Broly, it was experiencing his worst nightmare. This was the same transformation that Kakarot had used as he beat him the last time. For a short moment he had been terrified as he saw this fighter take the same form. A small part of him just wanted to run away...him running, **him**.

But that was something he never would. His pride and even more his hate would never let him.

_"Don´t you see it? You are loosing again," the inner voice said now to Broly. "You only managed to get the upper hand against Kakarot´s son by pulling a cheap trick and threatening weaklings._

_And, well, I am pretty sure this guy here will kick your ass now..."_

`No,´ his conscious mind replied. `You are wrong. I will win.´

_"It doesn´t look like it," the voice answered._

In this moment his oponent decided to change his tactic...and draw his sword.

"So Broly...I have been told that your body can produce a nearly unlimited amount of energy," Trunks stated. "But it can only hold so much. So how about I cut you up and see what happens to you?"

Trunks was channeling his ki into the blade of his weapon and attacked.

Broly managed to dodge the first swing. But the second one left a visible gash on his stomach. Normally he was able to use his energy to form a shield around him that protected him from damage. But the concentrated power of the SSJ in the blade was simply too much for it.

Trunks knew he was stronger than his opponent. But not so much that it could ensure a easy victory...or a quick one.

And he didn´t know how many more minutes he would be able to hold the third level.

Then came another strike. But this time he blocked it. Instinctively Broly concentrated his energy in his arms and used them to stop the blade. The Legendary Super Sayajin never had been exceptionally good at ki control. His domain was more sheer raw power. But that didn´t mean that he didn´t have at least some basic understanding of it.

He blocked the ki augmented blade with his bare hands - at least this time.

`No, it was enough´, Broly thought. He would win this, somehow. This thought was accompanied by Trunks fist landing in his face another time.

And if he failed, he said to himself taking the blow - if he had indeed been surpassed **this** far - then he would welcome death.

At the sidelines, Son Gohan, Goten and his own younger counterpart were watching. Gohan was still looking like he was in a bad shape...Trunks and Goten on the other side like they were once again eager to help. Obviously they had overcome their first shock about Broly´s power.

"Get him Trunks," Son Goten yelled.

"Get him **me**," Kid Trunks shouted.

The older Trunks landed another hit with his sword - but it was only a small cut on Broly´s shoulder, since the saiyan nearly managed to successfully evade it.

But it also gave Trunks an opening. He used this chance to shoot a ki blast right into Broly´s stomach. It wasn´t a particular strong attack.

The damage this single blast caused was minimal, barely noticable in fact - and even that mostly because Broly had been distracted . But combined with everything else...

His problem was he knew his time was running out.

When this here was over he really needed to learn to hold the SSJ3 for a longer time, Trunks thought. But for now he needed to **end** this...and quickly.

His opponent floated now several meters in front of him, having just taken the last attacks. He was already damaged and beaten up...and so a bit slower and weaker than in the beginning of the fight.

Fatigue was sadly not a factor, since Broly never run out of energy.

Having fought 17 and 18 for years however, he had experience with such enemies.

He targeted him and send out a Burning Attack, one that he put his entire power into this one blast, and fired it at Broly.

The resulting explosion blinded him and the others for a few moments.

As the sight became clear again - they could already sense it before... Broly was still there - alive.

This time he had managed to form his energy barrier in time... and it had stopped the attack.

Damn it, Trunks thought. The others had told him about the barrier, but he had underestimated just how effective it was. But he had no choice.

He was nearly out of time, he knew it. He could feel his energy depleting by the second. There was maybe one minute left in that he could hold this level - maybe even less.

He charged forward towards Broly... and landed another punch right in his face, that send him flying good 15 meters back.

Trunks draw his sword again, intending to cut his opponent apart completely this time.

Broly however saw this and brought his barrier up to full power once again and additionally used his arms to block it once again.

Trunks concentrated all his energy to break through his opponents defense and cut him down here and now.

But it was already too late. In this moment he fell out of the SSJ3 stage.

Just like Broly a few moments before, he was thrown backwards in the moment his powerlevel dropped, as his enemies now stronger energy overwhelmed his own.

Broly was looking as if he had been through hell and worse. He was bleeding, his body and face were full of bruises, he even had a few burn marks from the ki attack that hit him square.

But all that was overshadowed by the wild, murderous look on his face.

"**You**," he growled as his eyes met Trunks.

xxxxxxx

Meanwhile several kilometers from them two familiar figure came flying into their direction.

They came from different directions and were just meeting right here. The first of them, a young woman, was greeting the other one as they came into reach.

"You sensed it as well," she stated.

"It is hardly possible to oversee that," Piccolo replied. "Do you know where the others are?"

"By what Bulma told me Vegeta is somewhere around the world, searching for the same guy who had shown up right now. So he is most likely on his way here from whereever he was... and my brother had vanished a few days ago, going on one of his `trips´," Eighteen explained.

"And the rest?... you know where they are." She gestured to the place where Gohan, Goten and both Trunks were already facing Broly.

"I see," the Namekian replied.

They were both still flying side by side in the direction where they felt the energies of the saiyajins.

He knew that Android 17 had the habbit to sometimes simply disappear and leave for weeks, sometimes for months and then show up again later as if nothing had happened - that meant of course 18 had told them about it - it was not as if any of the Z-fighers had actually much contact with him aside from his sister.

And if 17 was gone he usually stayed gone until he **wanted** to return.

"That means Seventeen will probably not be around for this fight, right?"

"It is not as if we need him," she retorted, "and he knows that as well."

Piccolo nodded.

"Even with his new power-up, either Vegeta, Trunks or Gohan alone should be able to fight him quite easily. To that come you and me. We all could give him a fight. All of us? he would have no chance."

"The problem is that we aren´t there to meet him at the same time," 18 retorted. "He has already gotten the drop on Gohan somehow and Trunks won´t be able to hold his SSJ3 form for much longer."

Nearly like a prophecy coming true, they felt his ki collapse into itself only a few seconds later.

"You felt that?" he asked.

"Of course I did. Let´s hurry up," she responded.

xxxxxxx

Trunks was now in a similar position as Broly had been a few moments before. Now it was he who was being slapped around.

Just like he himself did a minute earlier, Broly landed one punch on him after the other. In opposite to Trunks however, he showed absolutely no plan or restraint. All he cared about right now was was beating the one into the ground who had been humiliating him moments ago.

Son Gohan, who had so far since he had taken over mostly been trying to shield the children and the students, was now assisting Trunks again, as good as he could.

But one wounded saiyan and one tired severely weakened could only do so much here... and Broly was clearly on a rampage now. He landed another vicious hit on Trunks. His SSJ2 form was simply not enough and even that one was not longer at full stength with the amount of energy he had already spend.

Broly roared like a wild animal as he attacked them. He really seemed like he had lost all senses.

Gohan however was not the only one who was trying to help. The younger Trunks and Son Goten were trying to distract Broly and firing ki attacks on him from the distance.

But he just ignored them, he ignored everything except the being he wanted to destroy.

Son Gohan, despite his injury, once again stood in his way and was trying to stop him, using his healthy arm, but like Trunks he was already starting to get tired and lost some of his energy. All that while their opponent just wasn´t getting any weaker.

Broly just slammed him out of his way, send him flying down, until he crashed into the concrete of the road below them, not far away from the bus.

"Gohan," one of his fellow students called out as he saw him hitting the ground.

Even by now it had barely registered in all their minds what they had gotten into. Their classmate Son Gohan was one of the mysterious super-warriors. Like the rest of them he could fly and shoot beams from his hands.

And this were clearly no simple tricks as they could see now. The tremors of the ground, the wind and especially the impact on the environment, in first line the blown up street in front of them, could hardly be faked.

But what all of them realized one thing. Gohan had saved their lives as he protected them from the blast that maniac, whoever he was, had fired at them... and risked his own in the process.

Son Gohan - like Son Goku - it clicked in at least some of their minds.

xxx

Up in the air Trunks was now facing even greater problems. Now that he was left nearly alone.

Bad luck, that was how you could have summoned this entire fight. Normally they together would have been able to defeat this opponent easily. But they never truly had the chance to fight him together. If Trunks had only arrived a little bit earlier, if Broly had not threatened the students, if Gohan had not been wounded.

All that had led to the current situation.

But now, for once, something went right for them.

Just as his raging enemy wanted to fire another blast at him with an angry snarl, he was suddenly kicked from the side.

Trunks saw that it were Eighteen and Piccolo who had just arrived - the female Android being the one who had just landed the blow on Broly.

It send him a few meters farther away and brought some distance between them. Not to mention that it had interrupted his ki attack.

"It is good to see you," Trunks said to them.

"Are you okay?" 18 asked him, slight worry in her voice.

"As okay as you can be after a fight like this," he replied.

"Piccolo," she shouted at the Namekian to get his attention, who gave her a short nod in return before he flew down to the ground.

He landed on the road to check on Gohan, who was right now struggling to get up again.

Some of the students, who were standing close by as Gohan had crashed - a few of them had already been moving to help him themselves - were now taking a few steps back as they saw the intimidating looking green skinned fighter landing.

"Gohan, are you alright?" he asked.

"Pi...Piccolo," he said, recognizing his old friend and mentor. "I have seen better days," he admitted. "How is Trunks?"

"He is holding himself. Eighteen is assisting him."

"Good," he replied. "We should help as well."

"**I** will help," Piccolo corrected him. "You are in no condition to do much anyway."

The half-saiyan took a good look at the state he himself was in and realized that Piccolo was right.

"I guess I will have to sit out this one," he said.

Moments later Piccolo lifted off the ground again.

"Gohan," one of his classmates who were still standing close by finally spoke. "That was just... unbelievable."

"Yes, I can hardly believe that you can do something like this," Sharpner told him.

Gohan was looking at them.

"Could you...well..." he hesitated a bit, "...keep quite about this?"

Inside, he didn´t have great hope. He knew how the chances were that the entire class, including the teacher and the bus-driver would all keep their mouths shut.

"Why in the world would you want that?" one of his other fellow students asked him. "You are... now... like The Great Saiyaman or something."

"Don´t you get it?" Videl announced. "He **is** The Great Saiyaman."

"What?" someone yelled.

"How many people who can fly and throw light-beams do you think are in our town?" she asked them.

`Oh thanks a lot Videl´, Gohan thought sarcastically. That was just what he needed.

xxx

Up there in the air, Broly after the kick from 18 seemed surprisingly have to regained **some** of his senses.

"I see you have gotten some more help Son of Vegeta... and good looking one too," he remarked with a glance at her. "Now girl, show me what you are capable of." He smirked.

"You know," he said in Trunks direction, "when this is over and you are dead... maybe I will see what **else** she can do."

Both of them understood instantly what he was implying.

Eighteen, being disgusted, send another kick at him that made the already wounded Broly visibly flinch and draw back a little.

"You won´t do anything like that you bastard," Trunks told him coldly. "Because **you** are the one who will die here."

"Really? then come," he goated him.

It was quite clear that 18 was not completely on Broly´s new level, even if she didn´t seem that far away... and was obviously able to cause notable damage. In his already injured state, she might actually have a good chance.

"Solar Flare," Trunks shouted, more to Eighteen´s benefit than because it was necessary, to warn her about it.

Having blinded his opponent for a few seconds, he once again used his sword in an attempt to cut Broly apart.

But this time he didn´t have the energy of a SSJ3 behind him. He channeled as much ki into it as he could, but he knew he was at his limit.

The sword actually hit Broly´s neck... and nothing happened.

xxxxxxx

_Somewhere in the areas of the Northern Districts_

Thousands of miles away, an on the first look quite unusual pair had been wandering through the seemingly endless forests that existed in this regions.

One of them was Android 17 and the other was a young zoologist from the Royal Nature Park with the name Mari Lar.

Both of them were in this moment looking at a small burned and devastated area. In a circle of at least two kilometers everything had been burned down to the ground... and in the center of the destruction was a large crater.

"Had a bomb exploded here?" Mari questioned shocked. "What...?"

"Something like this," 17 replied stoically.

"Lapis...ahm I mean Seventeen - tell me, what in the world has happened here?" she asked.

It was not more than a few hours ago that he had finally revealed to her who... and in first line **what** he was.

He had also told her the rest of the story, the Z-fighters, Son Goku, Cell and also the latest menace that had threatened their planet called Ne-Me-Sys.

So far she had taken it quite well...given the situation.

"You can call me Lapis if it makes you feel better," he said.

"No..." she replied, "if you say that this - that name - is no longer you than I won´t use it. It is just all a bit overwhelming though." That was an understatement.

A part of her was still in shock. At first she had thought Lapis was making one of his jokes as he told her about this. Only as he just lifted off and flew in front of her she started to believe it.

And even now her mind barely managed to grasp all that. It was just **too** much.

17 was laughing quietly.

"Of course it is. For a **normal** average human this things had to be a bit hard to take. You are not one one of the Z-fighers after all." he grinned. "But since you are my favorite human... I will forgive you." He gave her a smile.

"Oh well..." she started to reply, but them suddenly her demeanor changed. "Hey, are you laughing at me Seventeen?" she asked him with an `angry´ voice. It was clear however that a great part of her anger was fake.

He now complete broke out into full blown laughter.

"You are truly cute..." he said, "...for a human."

"What are you saying? That is not funny."

"Yes it is," he told her. "To answer your question - You remember what I have told you about Ne-Me-Sys? This was one of his installations."

"What are we doing here?" she asked him nervously.

"I am looking for something. I wanted to see if some of it might be still intact."

"Ne...Ne-Me-Sys, you don´t think there could still be something left of that monster do you?"

During the last day he had told her several details about what the Super-Computer, that barely anybody else outside of the Z-fighters was aware of.

"No..." he replied darkly "I am pretty sure Ne-Me-Sys is dead... and believe me, if some part of his AI should actually still be intact I will personally crush it. But that is not what I meant. As you know Ne-Me-Sys had started out as the computer-network of the Red Ribbon Army and later of Doctor Gero.

Every one of Gero´s secret labs had at least one of his consoles. That means he had access to all of them, the equipment, the information... or rather you could say that every one of them became later - in some sense - a part of Ne-Me-Sys... and everything in them."

"So there is something here that you want?" she stated.

"Exactly, I knew you were a smart one." He grinned. "I had already searching one of the other places before I met you out here. But after I came across you in the forest, I thought, why not just bring you along?"

"Why?"

"Why would I? To impress you of course," he responded with a smirk.

"Yes, sure," she commented drily.

By now she knew Lapis - no Seventeen - well enough to get used to his antics. She was quite sure that it was not exactly a coincidence that he saw her and had taken her with him.

Why had he just now told her who he truly was and then right away brought her here? It was not as if she could do anything to help him.

"Did you want to see how I would react when you showed me all this? Is this some sort of test. You show me your heritage to see if I could accept it?"

For a few moments Seventeen´s expression became unreadable.

"Like I said, you are a smart one," he replied then.

"You know, I don´t appreciate you messing with me like this," she said.

"I understand that. But I just needed to see how you would react to all of this," he said to her.

He was walking a few meters and then suddenly look downwards. He sank to his knees and then punched his fist unto the ground.

The rock under him crumbled and revealed a shaft and a metallic ladder that led into the underground.

"Now, let us go downstairs?" he questioned and reached out his hand to her.

xxxxxxx

Trunks saw what had happened...and he didn´t like it at all.

His blade had made a direct hit... It should have chopped his head off.

But the difference in their ki was just too great. It was as if his sword had hit an unbreakable wall, just like in his fight with Eighteen years ago, he remembered.

Broly, who just regained his sight, saw as well what had happened... and started to laugh.

"See, I am **winning**," he shouted. "You told me that I would loose... You told me it would end like that fight against Kakarot. You told me that I only got lucky against Kakaro´s son. But you were wrong. I told you... **I** was right..."

Trunks was already tempted to respond until he realized that there was no way Broly was talking to him.

"What is this maniac talking about?" 18 questioned next to him.

"No idea, my guess would be that he had **completely** lost it. One reason more to put him down for good."

She nodded in reply.

In this moment Broly was hit by another attack - Masenko - one of Piccolo´s techniques, they recognized it instantly. As they looked around they saw that the Namek had indeed joined them again.

"So are we taking him out now?" he asked rhetorically.

"You bet we will," 18 said, firing a Infinity Bullet at Broly. She was angry, angry and sad - in fact she had ever been since **it** happened.

And Broly had just presented himself as a good outlet for all of it.

Aside from her brother, Trunks was one of the few people who were there for her during that time. He understood what she was going through... and this guy here had just done his best to kill him.

Her continued assault of small ki attacks forced him to raise his energy barrier once again.

He was able to shield himself from her assault, but at the same time he couldn´t make any offensive moves himself against any of them.

Trunks and Piccolo were preparing their own attacks.

"I see you have already started without me," they heard a voice saying, one they knew all too well, Vegeta.

"Father." Trunks looked around to see the Saiyan Prince levitating a few meters next to them.

xxxxxxx

_Northern Districts_

17 and Mari were now standing in the middle of one of Doctor Gero´s... and later Ne-Me-Sys... old secret facilities. This one was, as he remembered, not a lab in the strict sense, but a storage-depot.

Equipment, information, technology, even parts of ideas and never realized experiments that either Gero or the super-computer had conceived... it was all to find here.

Just as 17 had hoped, some of the outer parts of the underground complex were still intact and had not collapsed after Piccolo´s blast. The main computer of course, that had been part of Ne-Me-Sys system, had been obliterated.

"What exactly are you looking here for?" she asked him.

"Everything," he answered, "whatever I can find. To be honest, what I am looking for most is data about me and 18 and our transformation into what we are now," he said, while searching through a number of blueprints and data-sticks that he had found.

"You should know, 18 and I are powerful, incredible powerful by nearly every standards... and we can get stronger. By now we have surpassed even Cell by far. But the truth is we are not nearly as strong as we could be. Doctor Gero had never brought out our true potential. In fact he had been trying to keep us on a level he **thought** he could control," he said with disdain.

"Not that this managed to hold us back. But now... You know about Ne-Me-Sys... and to tell you the truth, there is someone out there who is even more dangerous. We need more power. We need to unleash our full potential and we need to do it quickly."

In the far distance 17 could feel the energies of the Z-fighters who were in this moment fighting that saiyan named Broly. They should be easily able to do it without him, he thought.

But the longer the energy of their opponent was there, the more he felt the urge to go out there and go to fight him as well.

They should have long won at this point. From the moment on Gohan´s energy dismished, he was tempted to just go and help out himself. But when Trunks took over and it clearly looked like they were winning.

Now however he seemed to have exactly the same problem.

"This here looks very promising." He lifted up a sample of disks and papers. "I will bring you back outside again. Could you keep these for me and wait here?" His face became stern. "There is something I have to do."

xxxxxxx

Broly had finally to admit one thing... the voice had been right...he **was** loosing.

If he had thought the fight against Trunks had been bad, it was nothing against the beat-down now.

The other Z-fighters had chosen very quickly to leave the fight to Vegeta. For good reason as it turned out.

At first Broly had tried to met Vegeta´s attack, but was instantly thrown back as their fists clashed and he was completely overpowered.

His opponent was moving much faster than he and appeared behind him only to kick him into the other direction.

Then Vegeta once again moved and reappeared right before him, buried his fist into his stomach and then slammed him down, crashing into the ground. Similar like he had done it with Gohan a short time before.

"So that was the `Legendary Super Saiyajin´," Vegeta commented drily. "Now one last thing before I finish you off. How have you recovered so quickly and gotten so much stronger?"

"...The masked man... The Priest...he..." Broly murmured in a toneless voice, but loud enough for them to hear him.

"Him again," Piccolo exclaimed.

"We should have known," Trunks stated.

"I see. Now then, goodbye Broly," Vegeta told him.

Suddenly something in the expression of the Legendary Super Saiyajin changed.

_"I have told you you would loose," the voice said to him in his mind. "You are just nothing special anymore."_

"No," Broly yelled. "It can not end like this. I was born to be the strongest. I was meant to be invincible. If I am not the best, what am I then? **What?**"

_"It is quite easy," the voice said to him. "You are a failure. You are nothing."_

"No," he replied.

The others draw back a few meters, preparing themselves in case he tried something.

"If I am not the best than I am worthless," Broly stated, his voice broken and completely expressionless.

Vegeta was looking at his kneeling opponent with a mixture of pity and anger. He remembered how he used to think the same way and talked in as similar manner many times.

"Do you know what your problem is?" he shouted at him. "You think you are just born for the greatest power and don´t need to do anything for it. You believe it simply is your birthright and you don´t actually need to work to improve. That is why you failed."

"Hypocrite," Eighteen murmured under her breath.

Broly´s face now changed once again, to ice-cold fury.

"No... I will kill you. I will kill all of you," he yelled... and charged forward.

But he was met with Vegeta´s fist. He could feel his rips cracking under the punch... and was spitting out blood.

Broly sank back to his knees.

The green ki that was still flowing through his entire body seemed to be leaking out. It´s level had still not dismished, even when it´s vessel - Broly himself - was completely broken.

"Like I said," Vegeta told him grinning as he stepped a short distance back from his fallen opponent, "you loose."

"No," Broly said with a manic expression in his features. "No... **you** loose," he screamed.

In his hands he had formed to globes of green energy, even in his weakened state enough to destroy the entire planet... and he was aiming downwards to the ground - right at the Earth´s core.

But before he could bring his hands down and unleash the destructive energy, he was hit by Piccolo´s Special Beam Cannon, that pierced straight through his chest.

It was closely followed by another ki blast from 18 that burned through his already dieing form as well.

The ki that was inside Broly seemed now to be breaking out in a violent reaction and his body burst apart - exploded under the energies that it could not longer hold.

Moments later nothing was left except a few burnt remains of flesh.

"Piccolo?" Vegeta turned around to the Namek.

"Just a little precaution, in case you got too careless," he stated. "I have not forgotten the mess you have created with Cell... and believe me, neither had Eighteen here. It seems we were right to be prepared."

Vegeta only answered with another one of his grins... while Trunks gave them a more warm smile.

xxx

In some distance Son Gohan was still discussing with his teacher and his classmates.

A few minutes later another newcomer arrived.

"You come too late," Mirai Trunks greeted Seventeen.

"What should I say? I originally trusted you to do it alone. Only when you got more and more trouble I decided to come as well."

"And now there is nothing here to do anymore," Trunks replied.

"I guess that means my trust was justified, right?" 17 responded. "Whatever," he changed the topic, "there is something else you should know. I have found something that might be important. For that I should talk with your mother, at best both of them."

"About what?" he asked quite surprised. Normally, by what he knew, Seventeen was staying out of the way of scientists, even the Briefs.

"Does the name Super Android Project say something to you?" 17 questioned.

xxxxxxx

_Another planet_

Far away from Earth the group of their enemies was on their way to realize the next step to realize the plans of The Priest.

This here would only be a small part in the long run. The really important details would be established elsewhere.

His two allies 17 and 18 were still standing by his side. Very soon they would not longer be the only ones.

Of course it wasn´t the person they were meeting **now**. This one was only meant to be a tool. At least that was what The Priest had told them. Not that they blindly trusted him.

But so far he was far more tolerable than their so called master Doctor Gero had ever been. And in opposite to him he was barely ever staying in the way of their fun.

In fact some of his schemes were pretty entertaining in itself, like toying with the Z-fighters or slaughtering this Wizard Babidi and his men.

But the next part would probably be the best of them all, even if they had to wait some time for it.

By now the two Androids had found out what was lying under the mask of The Priest. To say that they were surprised would be an understatement. It was a complete shock for both of them what they had found out about their ally.

But in the end they realized it didn´t matter... much. His offer was still just as good as it was before.

And they needed him... at least for now.

Eventually they even came to appreciate the irony... now the they knew who The Priest truly was.

xxx

At the place that they had made their temporally base, somewhere in the galaxy, they had left behind another item. One far more important than anything on **this** planet here... the egg of the Demon Buu.

With Babidi dead, the Kaioshin had simply - after making sure that it was still there - left it behind where it originally had been burried on Earth, afraid that every attempt to move it would still risk waking him.

The Z-fighters might by now be a match or even stronger than the demon, but the Kaioshin knew all too well how dangerous and unpredictable Buu could be.

What he didn´t anticipated was that The Priest would simply move in right afterwards and take the egg away, keeping it under his own shelter.

When the time came, Buu would be another useful creature, furthering his plans.

xxx

Right now however, they were dealing with another part of the puzzle, one that would be just as important.

The planet they were standing one was lying in ruins - not their work for once - but the one of a brutal conqueror who had taken over this world some time ago.

This being had taken over parts of Freezer´s old Planet Trade Union. But he didn´t even actually need them. His true power came from himself and his own group of warriors.

This `power´ was nothing in comparison to that of the three beings who were just entering the entrance of the palace that the conqueror had `inheritaged´ from the former ruler of the planet.

"So this is where we are meeting this guy?" 18 questioned.

"Yes," The Priest replied.

"And then we convince him to return with us to Earth," 17 stated.

"Yes."

"Great, I am looking out to see Trunks again," 18 said with a grin. "I am really curious to see his face when he sees what you are preparing for him."

They were greeted by two soldiers, former members of Freezer´s Empire in the typical armor.

"Your Lord awaits us," The Priest told them.

The two men just stepped aside and led them through the corridors, right to the throne room, where the new master of the palace was awaiting them... together with the elite of his warriors.

"So you are the ones who had asked for an audience," the figure on the throne addressed them.

"We are. It is a pleasure to meet you Lord Bojack," The Priest stated. "After all we are both following the same master."

* * *

Good, this is the end of the mini-arc about Broly´s return and the beginning of the next one.

For comparison between the characters here a few more powerlevels:

Son Gohan: 10.000. 000.000 (Incomplete Ultimate Gohan) /Ultimate Gohan complete (orig. timeline): 24.000. 000.000

Trunks: SSJ3 12.000. 000.000 - SSJ2 3.500. 000.000

Broly (after zenkai): ca. 10.000. 000.000

Ultimate Vegeta: 17.000. 000.000

Android 18 (past timeline): 8.000. 000.000

Android 17 (past timeline): 9.000. 000.000

The Priest: ...54.000. 000.000


	19. Chapter 19: The last of the Saiyans

**Chapter 19**

The last battles were now nearly a month ago. For so long Earth had now truly been at peace.

The Z-fighters had spend most of that time training - however not all of them truly for the same reasons.

Of course they all had the motivation to prepare - at least as good as it was even possible - for The Priest and his eventual return.

Beside that though some of them had also other secondary reasons for their training. Like he** himself **did.

Son Gohan remembered what had happened after Broly´s final defeat.

_xxx_

_He had been standing in front of his assembled class and the teacher. If he was honest, he felt more helpless than he ever did against Broly or Cell._

_They all had waited for him to say something, but what he had to them wasn´t quite what most would have expected. He asked them **not** to talk about this.  
_

_But he knew all too well how low the chances were, even if they agreed, that truly **all** of them would keep quiet. And if even a single one would give information to the press, he could say goodbye to his normal life.  
_

_"Okay, listen everyone," Videl spoke up. "It should be obvious that Gohan is not like me or my father. He wants to work as a hero, but also keep his private life. Gohan is just a modest person who doesn´t want fame or to stand in the spot-light. _

_And who are we to deny him that? After all he had saved all our lives as this maniac was shooting at us, right?"  
_

_Some of the others nodded in the background. _

_"So I say we fullfil his wish and all keep quiet about this. My father would do the same thing," she said. "My father would do the same thing if he were here."  
_

_Of course he would, Gohan thought sarcastically. There was no way Mister Satan would want something like this here to become public knowledge._

_"He would respect the wish of another hero to stay anonymous," Videl continued. "So we should do the same thing. Don´t you agree?"  
_

_Nods were to see from some of the students and also the teacher and murmurs to hear in the background. Of course, always play the `Mister Satan Card´ and you reach anything with this people, Son Gohan knew that all too well.  
_

_Ask them something in **his** name and they will do it, especially if you are Videl._

_The entire Mister Satan popularity `cult´ sometimes reminded him more of a new religion than just a famous fighter and his fans. He sometimes asked himself if the Z-fighters should have put an end to it years ago._

_He had to admit he was surprised about Videl speaking on his behalf... and especially not to understand him and his motives.  
_

_"Of course under one condition," she said.  
_

_So much for **that**, Gohan thought._

_"That he will participate in the new Budokai next week and gives us all a real demonstration of what he can do," she announced.  
_

_`What?´ he repeated in his mind.  
_

_"And of course that he tells all of us more about his life and how he came to be Saiyaman."_

_`Great´, he responded mentally. But that was not the end.  
_

_"Hey Gohan, ... I would have never thought you had it in you. Congratulations," Sharpner now said to him. "Videl is right though, you have to tell us more about this."  
_

_"Since when are you able you fly?" a girl asked him._

_"How do you do that?" another one asked._

_Videl only gave him a wide smile. _

_She had gotten what she truly wanted. Next Budokai would be, the daughter of Mister Satan against the son of Son Goku.  
_

_xxx_

What followed were even more questions and congratulations. He tried to avoid to answer them, since he didn´t exactly knew what to say.

The next weeks he had been spending mostly like in the time when his father had been still alive. That meant regular training beside the studying.

It was a few days after the `Broly Incident´ that a newscast appeared on TV, quickly followed by some articles in the newsparer, that one student of Orange High had been revealed to be Saiyaman. But none of it said any named or stated the identity of that `anonymous source´ that made this claim.

All in all he had gotten very lucky here, he knew that. Nobody had truly revealed his identity... at least so far.

But that could still easily happen. All what it would take was a single one of them not listening to Videl.

And there was also something else. Videl had spoken to him again in private a few days later, before they returned from their school trip, that had understandably been cut short because of the latest incident.

That time she told him that he owed her something for keeping the others from talking about his secret. While this was technically true, he had already agreed to partake in the coming tournament because of it, as he pointed out to her.

She just retorted that this was simply a favor for the class, but he owed also one especially to her. He admitted this girl was starting to get to his nerves. But he also knew that he really couldn´t go against Videl, since she was the only one who kept the others from talking about his secret identity.

To think, with all his power he was completely cornered by her here, Gohan could nearly laugh about it.

At least Videl had not really been asking for much.

She wanted him to teach her how to fly. With the talent and strength level that she already possessed, he knew she could do it and that probably even in the short timeframe they had.

xxxxxxx

_At the same time, somewhere close to West City_

Trunks, who had decided to stay in this time period for the time being, had gotten a better grip on his SSJ3 form and was able to hold it for longer. In his last try he had reached nearly a half hour.

But he was still improving and far from having perfected it.

Beside that he was also training his other forms. He was making progress in all of them. But it was still far from enough.

During the last weeks, he had also spend some time at Kame House. Usually he was training with 18. A habbit that they had already developed in their time in the time-chamber. Or they were just sitting together and talking.

One time he had actually been watching over Marron for her. It was not simply a favor for 18. Krillin had been a close friend - not only of his mother, but he also became one of Trunks himself during the time he had spend in the past - Even if this was technically not the same timeline he had visited before.

His affection for the Android however, he admitted, had surprised and somewhat shocked the half-saiyan at first.

This little girl was now all what was left of him in this world.

But even if Marron had not been Krillin´s daughter, he would have done this favor to 18 anyway. Eighteen, it was somehow hard to grasp how close he had gotten to one of the counterparts of the same Androids who had ruined his Earth.

Still she was very different from the 18 he knew from his timeline - even if they shared many personality traits and characteristics - They **were** at least were it counted.

But for now he had other things to deal with.

He knew that Gohan was, at least in part, also training for the Budokai were he would partake in in a few days, but only because one of his classmates had practically blackmailed him into it.

The thought was actually so absurd that it was nearly kind of funny, a Super Saiyajin, one of the strongest beings in the universe... being blackmailed by a simple highschool girl.

Right now however there was something else he had to do. He would take the rest of the day off from his training.

xxxxxxx

_Capsule Corporation_

The information that Android 17 - who had just suddenly showed up along with the older Trunks and a woman none of them had ever seen before - had brought a month ago was in fact more than interesting, both Bulma´s thought.

Now they were all standing here to see what they had been able to discover from the data-carriers Seventeen had retrieved.

He and his sister Eighteen who was holding her little daughter Marron in her arms, Mirai Trunks, for some reason the woman who Seventeen had brought along the last time and even Vegeta, who had taken an interest in this, were standing in one of the labs, waiting for the two Bulmas to beginn their explanation. Which they did quickly.

"As you all know a few weeks ago Seventeen had brought us some information that he had recovered. It has taken us so long..."

"Well, that was mostly because some of the material that 17 had given us was in a really bad state," the older Bulma spoke in. "We needed time to even made it readable again. It really took two geniuses like us to decipher it."

"I got it from one of the installations that Piccolo had blown up," the Android commented. "What do you expect?"

"Mother..." Trunks said, slowly becoming impatient, "could you two please continue." He truly loved his mother, but sometimes her ego could truly be a nuisance.

"Okay okay," the older one replied,"well we have managed to analyse most of the content. This information - the part that was most useful at least - was mostly about 17 and 18 and the process that made them what they are now."

"A process that was never actually completed, at least as far as it came to Doctor Gero," her younger counterpart claimed. "By what we have found he saw great potential in you... even far greater than in Cell," she stated. "The reason that he never realized his plans were, as far as we found, that he simply didn´t have the technology available to realize this power... So he concentrated instead on Cell."

"I would say that is only the half truth," Seventeen commented.

"What do you mean?" the older Bulma asked.

Since she had first met this two she could not help to feel uncomfortable around this two Androids - scared. It was no wonder of course, even if she knew that Trunks had assured her that they were nothing like the versions from their world, she couldn´t help herself.

"Lack of technology might have been one of the reasons," he stated. "But another one was, he was afraid of us. He knew he couldn´t keep us under control if we became too powerful. So he didn´t even try."

"As you knew we already surpassed Cell by far, even without this technology," 18 pointed out. "We didn´t need Gero."

"You didn´t need him to surpass **Cell**," the younger Bulma clarified. "But this data here shows that still far more is possible than your current level...

...and it is not only that. As it looks Doctor Gero had actually started to design plans that made it possible to even far surpass the full potential of your bodies as they are now."

"Yes, I know about this methode," Trunks told the others. "By merging them with a copied secondary body. That would also allow to control the Android in question."

They all were looking at him in surprise.

"How do you know that?" the young Bulma wanted to know.

"You remember the recordings from other timelines Ne-Me-Sys had shown me that I have told you about? This was part of it."

"And why are you telling us that just now?" Vegeta asked him impatiently.

"What would it have brought to tell you then? We couldn´t have done anything with it anyway at that time... and we had other worries."

"Well, with this data here and the blueprints we already have of Seventeen, we actually might..." his mother told him.

"Moment... **you** have my blueprints?" 17 questioned darkly.

"It...it is not like you think," the younger Bulma responded nervously. "We had needed them against Cell and so..."

"They had used them to build this shut-down switch to deactivate me before Cell could absorb me," 18 stated.

"I see," her brother said. He didn´t exactly like it, but it didn´t matter right now. All this was truly water under the bridge at this point. "And you can use the technology?" he questioned.

"Probably not to the level Gero intended," the older Bulma admitted. "But we should be able to integrate additional systems and bio-engineered parts into your bodies - after we have created them of course - but that would take time. After the transformation you should be much stronger and with your systems being complete, you should be save against someone like Gero or Ne-Me-Sys trying to control you again."

"How much time do you mean?" 18 wanted to know.

"Months," Bulma´s younger self replied, "maybe even years," she admitted. "We can make you more powerful, yes, but it will be a long and complicated process to develop the parts necessary... But the integration into your bodies itself should be quite quickly later... if you agree of course."

17 and 18 shared a short but intense look. Neither of them liked the idea of a scientist - any scientist - working on their bodies again, even if it was Bulma. But they both knew the kind of threat that The Priest was.

"I guess we agree, right Eighteen?" he said.

"I guess The Priest doesn´t leave us much choice," she replied.

"You two Bulma´s should better hurry up," Vegeta told them. "There is no telling when this Priest and his two new sidekicks will return after all. And you..." he turned to Trunks, "...is there anything else you have not told us yet?"

The demi-saiyan didn´t say anything for a few moments.

"There is something else," he finally said, "...the so called Super Saiyajin God transformation."

This truly caught everyone´s interest, especially Vegeta´s.

"By what I know it allows a Super Saiyajin to gain access to divine ki..." Trunks continued, "and makes it possible for them to fight on a higher level than it would have ever been possible otherwise. But this knowledge doesn´t help us anyway," he added. "We can not perform the ritual to unlock that form."

"So, and why have you not told us **that** earlier?" the Saiyan Prince wanted to know. While before he had only been slightly irritated, he was now slowly getting angry.

"Like I told you, it doesn´t help us. Six saiyans are needed for the transformation, five to provide their energy and a sixt to receive it. Even with Goten and my younger self, we have only five."

"Well, if you had brought that up when Kakarot was still here, we **would** have enough."

"Son Goku is dead," Trunks replied, "and he had been the entire time. The Kaioshin had especially warned us about involving him **too** much.

I don´t even want to know what could happen if we tried this ritual when one of the members actually belongs to the Afterlife. I won´t risk throwing the world into chaos father only because you want to get stronger as quick as possible."

There was also the SSJ4 transformation, he thought. But that one was truly dangerous. He would not risk his father turning into a Golden Oozaru, loosing control and eventually destroying the planet himself.

Beside that, he didn´t thought that any of them had so far learned the necessary control to become a SSJ4. And none of them even possessed a tail right now. If he was honest he didn´t even know how Son Goku and his father had gained theirs back in the other timeline.

Vegeta just grunted for a short moment.

"I only hope that you still have the same sentiment when The Priest returns and we have nothing to hold against him," he stated.

"If we have success with this project here," Bulma pointed out, "we **won´t** be with nothing."

"So we shall trust the Androids with everything now?" he asked sardonically.

"What is Vegeta, are you afraid you are getting surpassed?" 18 commented. "At least we won´t suddenly turn around and help the enemy get stronger."

"I will never life that one down, right?" he stated.

"No, not in two lifetimes," 17 replied humorously.

"Okay, do what you want then. But remember, there is no telling how much time we will have," Vegeta reminded them. "I can also get stronger by myself. In the end, you better hope that we will have another saiyan with us if we should need the transformation you were talking about." With this words he left the room.

For a few moments Trunks was confused. Another saiyan, he thought they were the only ones left? Did his father plan to wait until another one was born? It didn´t matter right now. If Vegeta was in one of his moods, it was practically useless to ask him questions.

But if he was completely honest, there was also another reason why he hadn´t brought up the Super Saiyajin God transformation earlier.

Why had The Priest spared them the last time? He had made it completely clear that he was willing to commit galaxy wide genocide after all. He must have plans for them. That was the reason he let them live.

It all reminded him all too much. The Priest was a God Ki user as well... one who wanted to destroy the natural order of things.

Somehow he couldn´t shake the feeling that **them** unleashing divine ki would play exactly into his hands. But should The Priest return and they would be completely outmatched again, what choice would they have?

All these questions were meaningless though. There weren´t enough saiyans left to perform the ritual anyway.

xxxxxxx

_Somewhere else in the galaxy - three weeks earlier  
_

Things had been going well... very well.

Right now The Priest was standing on board of a space-ship that had just been leaving the orbit of the planet Tech-Tech and was starting it´s way to Earth.

His plan was progressing just as he had thought... all of it.

As he and his allies 17 and 18 had first arrived on this world, everything had played out nearly exactly like he had predicted.

His meeting with Bojack as they first came here a week before... it went well so far.

_xxx_

_"Master? I serve nobody. I am the master over anybody around me," Bojack responded to the last statement of The Priest. "At least the ones who get to live," he stated with a vicious grin, directed at the three people in his throne-room.  
_

_He wasn´t able to sense their ki and had no way to know that this three alone could obliterate his entire Empire._

_"I didn´t say serve Lord Bojack. Maybe the term `inspired´ would have been better. I am talking about the legendary Nameless God."  
_

_Bojack only scoffed._

_"The Nameless God is a mythos, a old story that I have heard at my homeworld... a inspiring one, I admit. But only just that."_

_"And still you granted us this audience, just because of my promise of information about him," The Priest remarked.  
_

_"I was curious what you have to say. Now? Don´t try my patience... or it will cost you dearly."  
_

_The Priest only smiled behind his mask._

_"A terrible threat," he commented, "for anyone except us... The Nameless God is far more than a mythos. I can guaranty you that. I am a Dark Priest who is following him."_

_Bojack was looking at him for a few moments in silence... before he started to laugh._

_"A Dark Priest you say? You. Well, a pretty bold statement wouldn´t you agree? The Dark Priest were nearly as much a legend on old Hera*, as the god they were said to serve. You understand you will have to back up your claims with some proof."_

_"Of course," The Priest replied._

_"You, you and you two there," Bojack addressed a few of the soldiers who were standing at the side of the room.  
_

_Six men were stepping forward._

_"You wanted to be part of my army. You wanted to prove yourself to me...You have it. Kill them," he ordered the six soldiers. _

_T__hen Bojack turned back to his three `guests´._

_"If you survive, then we will talk," he told them with a grin.  
_

_"Seventeen, Eighteen," The Priest simply stated, "do you want to take care of this?"  
_

_The two Androids just grinned._

_They moved faster than the eyes of the most beings present could even see. The only ones who were actually able to follow their movements were Bojack and The Priest himself.  
_

_Then, with everyone of their movements, one soldier fell. One had a fist driven right through his chest, another had both arms broken and then his neck moments later, a third had his rips cracked and his internal organs ripped apart by a solid kick from 18. The head of another one exploded under a punch and the last two were simply incinerated by ki blasts.  
_

_Less than five seconds later it was over and that only because 17 and 18 had actually taken their time, enjoying what they were doing._

_Bojack had been watching everything, somewhat impressed._

_"Congratulations," he said, "as it seems you are actually worth talking to."_

_In the next moment The Priest moved...and this time Bojack could **not** follow the movement. It was too fast even for him to see. This time the heran overlord was more than just impressed, he was actually intimidated...just like intended.  
_

_"I... I believe I should actually consider your claim to be a Dark Priest," he added with barely hidden nervousity._

_"Yes, let us **talk**," The Priest stated coldly._

_xxx_

Now he was just about to fulfill another part of the `deal´ he had made with Bojack.

For this one, he was currently handing a little `present´ to him, one that he had brought along from the last universe he had visited.

Once again they were standing before Bojack.

17 and 18 were standing right next to him to his left. Both of them were showing slight curiousity about what was to happen, but mostly indifference about anything around them.

During the last weeks the two Androids had undergone some treatments to awake even more of their potential power, performed by some of the scientists and technicians from the army of Bojack´s self-made new Empire.

With the knowledge about 17 and 18´s creation and background and the technology they had taken over from Freezer´s troops, they had a quite good rate of success. Of course not nearly as good as Gero himself or his computer would have.

While both Androids hated every sort of scientists on principle, they decided that their need for more power - to be able to do something against Trunks and the other Z-fighters - won out. They may hate them, but they hated being outmatched even more.

Of course he had to tell them multiple times not to kill any of the scientists in question. That had worked out for the most part, except for one who had just acted too arrogant in front of them.

Right now, behind them a couple of soldiers just brought in something, something that made them visibly uncomfortable. It was a body... lying on a levitating barn that they were guiding into the room.

The reason the presence of this body outnerved them so much was quite simply. It was looking exactly like their supreme commander.

In fact, this body was Bojack, exactly like the man in front of them was... But it was another version of him, from another universe.

The Priest remembered...

_xxx_

_Mirai timeline - some time `earlier´  
_

_It was a short time after The Priest had distorted the bounderies between the world of the living and the Afterlife and allowed hundreds of residents of Hell to return to Earth._

_And it was a short time **before** he would meet 17 and 18 and leave this dimension together with them._

_Right now he was using the chaos he himself had unleashed to follow another part of his agenda._

_In this moment he teleported from Earth directly to the planet of the North Kaio of this galaxy... the place where some of the long deceased Z-fighters of this timeline where currently training._

_The three saiyans, Son Goku, Vegeta and Gohan, who had regained his once lost arm in the Afterlife, were present and beside them Krillin and Piccolo, who were right now watching as the other were sparring... as suddenly the cloaked and masked figure appeared before them._

_"Ahh hello," Son Goku said as he noticed the stranger._

_All of them realized instantly that they couldn´t feel any energy from the newcomer. Just like the Androids who killed most of them.  
_

_They were all turning to face him and were preparing themselves mentally for a confrontation._

_"Who are you?" Master Kaio asked as he stepped forward. But the stranger didn´t answer._

_He had to admit, he had a strange feeling about this. He knew this being was emiting divine ki. That would make him a god. But he, one of the Kaios, had never seen him before. So who was this guy?_

_To that came that he had not the slightest idea how strong this stranger was. Whoever he was, he made the heck of a job of concealing his own power._

_But he **was** the North Kaio and he shouldn´t be seen as a coward in front of his guests. And by the way, he was surrounded by some of the strongest beings in the galaxy, even far stronger than himself, so it wasn´t as if he hadn´t been protected, right?_

_"You all... how nice to see you again... " the robed figure finally addressed them, mostly ignoring the Kaio in front of him, very much to the divine being´s irritation - his gaze turned to one of their group - "especially you Son Gohan."_

_Without another word he was turning his look to Master Kaio. He reacted faster than even the Z-fighters could see or even comprehend._

_Before they knew what happened, The Priest had raised a finger and fired a ki blast through the godling´s chest. The Z-fighters could only watch in absolute shock as the deity, who had been their friend and teacher for decades now, was falling dead to the ground._

_"You," Krillin yelled._

_"Why have you done this?" Son Goku shouted at him._

_But he didn´t answer and just teleported away. _

_Next he went to the planet of the South Kaio and killed him as well. Since he was not surrounded by Z-fighter, it was even easier._

_The death of two Kaios nearly at the same time would certainly throw thing in this galaxy into chaos, exactly as he intended._

_But it had also another very welcome side-effect. The seal that the Kaios had put many centuries ago on Bojack and his closest followers was now broken._

_He found them exactly where the story said, sealed inside a celestial body, their bodies being in hybernation after all this time. Just as he had hoped he arrived before any of them even regained consciousness.  
_

_He took Bojack. He would have taken the others as well, but transporting so many over the dimensions and keep them unconscious at the same time would have been much more complicated and not really worth the effort. This one here was more than enough._

_He didn´t really care what happened with the others. Would they disband without their leader and start new lives? Would they go out to spread chaos in the galaxy by themselves? It would only serve his purposes. _

_It didn´t really matter. He had what he needed for now._

_xxx_

"So this is it," Bojack stated.

"Yes, this is you," The Priest replied, "the you from the last timeline I visited. I brought him here right from his imprisoment by the Kaios. Now, let us beginn," he said, grinning under his mask.

Now finally he would truly reach something... After his plot with the Dragon Balls had failed.

"Come closer," The Priest told him.

The Heran Lord did exactly that, although a bit hesitately. Both he and The Priest knew it, he feared this being.

At first he had not truly believed his claims to serve the Nameless God or to be a Dark Priest, but he entertained the thought in the hope to be... well entertained.

But since then he had given him many many pieces of proof that he was in fact much more powerful than Bojack himself.

And now he was confronted with a exact copy of himself who was unconscious, suspended and completely in the hand of this man. So yes he was afraid.

But this fear was also mixed with greed and the hunger for power. The Priest had promised to make him more powerful and as it looked he was keeping his word, although in an a bit unusual way.

"His memories are identical to your own up to the point where you have been sealed by the Kaios," he explained to him. "So there should be no great effect on your mind and your personality. You will still be you, only twice as powerful," he claimed. "Are you ready? You wanted this," The Priest reminded him.

"Yes... **yes**," Bojack responded now with more conviction, after the short moment of hesitation.

"Put this on," The Priest handed something to him. "It is Kaioshin magic," he stated.

Bojack saw that it was an earring... and that his double was wearing an identical one.

"Put it on the opposite ear to where your other self is having it and you will merge into a single being," The Priest explained. "No need to wake him up extra for this," he commented.

Bojack looked at him in surprise for a short moment about the strange methode, but did then how he was told.

"Don´t look at me like that. Like I said, it is the Kaioshin´s technique, not mine," The Priest told him.

The completely astonished audience watched as the two bodies were merging into one within moments.

Bojack had to admit he didn´t feel much different... only that his powerlevel had drastically increased...just like promised. He laughed and begann to power up.

The Priest was watching silently. The difference wasn´t that great for a fusion. Both participants were genetically identical, were the same person, so the resonance between them was zero and there was practically nothing new added. All in all it had **`only´** about doubled Bojack´s strength.

But that didn´t matter, an increase in power was never his main objective for initiating this.

xxx

Under the spectators was also another unusual person. This one wasn´t one of Bojack´s men - in fact he was a prisoner - but he wasn´t a true habitant of Tech Tech either. Still he had spend the greatest part of his life here.

This one had recently been caught trying to flee the planet, together with one of the natives. The female, who the prisoner later claimed to be his wife, had been killed during their attempt to flee.

The only reason he was even here was that Bojack had wanted him to see this, a demonstration of power for the already broken hearted young man, to break his spirit completely.

Next to him were standing two others who were holding him from both sides, keeping him from doing anything to disturb the process.

They were two of Bojack´s strongest soldiers, outside of his original team. Their names were Abo and Cado, nearly identical looking twin aliens. Both were former minions of Freezer, who had been active on their own for some time until Bojack recruited them into their army. In fact choosing the planet Tech Tech as a target had been their idea.

The man they were holding, he was a saiyajin. He had a energy signature that The Priest would recognize everywhere. It was very similar to that of the Saiyan Prince Vegeta.

In fact this man was his younger brother Tarble, who their father had banished to this planet for being `too weak´ and a disgrace for the royal family. So he had been living here under it´s people... until the planet had been invaded.

The Priest decided he would keep an eye on this man.

Now however his attention was on Bojack, who was standing in front of him with his increased power.

"Yes... yes," he said in glee, "I admit Dark Priest, you keep your word. I am stronger than ever before."

"A new power like this should be tested," The Priest commented, "really used to it´s full extent. Don´t you agree."

"Yes."

"This planet..." he said, looking out of the window to the world they were just leaving behind, "didn´t you say that your troops had already garnered all usefull resources and that it had now become worthless to you? Wouldn´t this be a worthy test object for your power?"

On Bojack´s face formed a grin.

"No, you can not..." Tarble shouted. But he was silenced by Cado´s fist in his stomach.

xxx

A minute later Bojack and The Priest appeared outside on top of the space-ship, protected from the vacuum by a energy bubble they themselves were creating.

With one hand Bojack collected energy in his palm, much easier and quicker as it would have been before. Then he fired the blast back at the planet behind them.

Moments later they saw the crust was breaking under the energy and the whole world was blowing up in a ball of fire. Millions who had still been alive after the brutal occupation perished **now**... and an entire race was brought to the brink of extinction.

"Yes, I could have done this with my little finger, in an blink of an eye, if I wanted. I am invincible now," he announced, "thanks to you," he said with a side-glance at the man next to him.

"Now it is time to go after the next target... the one that I was truly after the entire time... the planet Earth."

Achieving power was never the true purpose of Bojack´s transformation, The Priest thought. To truly achieve his goals, there was more needed than just mass destruction and genocide, even if it was a beginning.

He needed to uproot and break the rules of this reality, to completely unbalance and finally destroy the order of this worlds.

And by merging Bojack with his counterpart from the last timeline - especially with the Kaioshin´s own technique - he had done exactly that... at least on a small scale.

The heran was now a walking time and space anomaly... and with every act of random destruction he committed, he would disrupt the balance of this universe... not by much at first, but it was a beginning.

He needed to do more, much more. Only than his master could return to this universes and his reign would beginn.

xxxxxxx

_The day of the tournament_

They were here. Beside Son Gohan, who had no actual choice, Trunks, Eighteen and Piccolo had also decided to take part in the Budokai.

Their reasons for it were quite a bit different. In Trunks case it was mostly that he wanted to see Gohan fight, similar for Piccolo... and they also hoped to at least provide some real opponents for him.

18 was mostly here for the money, but also secretly - just like the other two - to get one over Mister Satan.

But then, as soon as they arrived at the registration, they were getting a surprise. But unknown to them it should be only the first of many.

"Seventeen?" 18 asked as she saw him. "I thought you didn´t want to come here."

"Nice to see you as well Eighteen," her brother responded. "Let us just say I have changed my mind."

"Is Mari not with you?" 18 wanted to know.

"Ahm I think she might be somewhere in the audience," he replied after a short moment.

"Okay, that..." she was just replying something but then suddenly turned silent. The others as well as they saw their reaction and followed her gaze.

And all of them received the shock of their lives.

In front of them, standing in line before the registration, waiting for his turn... was nobody else than The Priest himself.

* * *

**Authors note:** *In case someone didn´t know, Bojack and his group are the last living members of the Race of Hera.

This chapter has mostly been laying the groundwork for the new arc. That is also the reason for the great number of flashbacks.

Tarble has been introduced for this story.


	20. Chapter 20: Tournament of Nightmares

**Chapter 20**

"What are you doing here?" Piccolo addressed the robed figure they all knew all too well at this point. He was the first who had caught himself after suddenly seeing this being here.

"What are you planning this time?" Trunks asked him grimly.

They all were standing there... nearly frozen in shock.

Out of them only 17 looked all in all surprisingly relaxed at seeing this terrible enemy again. But on the other hand they also knew all too well that Seventeen was always pretending to take things not too serious, even when he certainly **did**.

"Oh, don´t worry, I don´t plan to attack," The Priest replied casually, "... at least not you," he told them.

"We will do everything to protect everyone here from you," the half-saiyan responded, thinking about the people in the stadium and the city around it.

"Trunks, Trunks... we both know that you can not even do that. None of you has that power... at least not yet. Maybe some time from now you will actually be a challenge," he said to him, seemingly without care. "But at least for now, let us continue like before. I have prepared something for you."

"Prepared something... what do you mean?" Gohan asked him.

"You will see... you will see very soon," the distorted voice of The Priest told them. "But for now, let us all just enjoy the tournament. That is the reason we all are **here** after all, right?" The irony in his words was clearly to hear though, despite the mask. "Come, let us get signed up. You don´t want to be too late, would you?" he asked them.

His words were accompanied by a quiet chuckly that they were however still able to hear. He turned around to the registration table. Other participants followed in line behind him, leaving them standing there.

"This guy has nerves," Son Gohan stated grimly.

"Does he seriously intent to take part in the tournament?" Piccolo questioned.

"It at least looks like it," Gohan replied. "I guess that means the Budokai is already decided."

"We have far greater problems with him here," Trunks reminded them.

"Are you okay?" he asked 18 as he saw her nearly unreadable expression.

"Yes, I am," she replied. "I am only glad that we didn´t take Marron along... that she is a half-world away from **him**."

Her face now changed and her feelings became visible... for a short moment. She was looking downwards.

"But that won´t mean anything in the long run, right?" she said. "If he gets his way nobody will be save anymore... **nowhere**."

Trunks stepped closer to her and layed his hand on her shoulder.

"Eighteen... I promise you, whatever he is planning, whatever will happen, in the end we will find a way to stop him. That is what I have done my entire life," he stated, "keeping monsters like The Priest or your and Seventeen´s counterparts from hurting people.

In one point however you have to admit The Priest is right..."

"What?"

"Well, we should really get registered now before it is too late."

xxxxxxx

The tournament had finally started... Or at least the preliminary did.

If you could even call it part of the tournament at all.

The opinions about this, especially under the Z-fighters, but also even under the normal humans, were divided.

But at least things had continued without any further surprises so far. Not that the presence of The Priest alone did not already fill all requirements for a complete disaster.

"I am calling my mother," Trunks told the others, taking out the phone the younger version of Bulma had given to him. "I will tell her to inform my father and the others about that The Priest is here."

In opposite to Gohan´s, his parents had stayed at home. His father even openly declared that this entire tournament was a waste of time, his mother, both of them, had other things to do at the moment.

If he was completely honest he spend his time currently rather at Kame House or even some other place when at Capsule Corp. For more than one reason.

His father, like usual, was doing nothing but training the entire day, either by himself or he was training his younger counterpart. Both versions of his mother were currently working on the so called Super Android Project... or whatever they intended to turn it into.

And beside that, what is a guy going to do who suddenly has two versions of his wife around? Trunks didn´t know what exactly was going on at night, but he was completely aware that his mother was very often not sleeping in the guest-quarters.

He was all for privacy and letting people have their own business, but here the thought alone somehow made his head twisting. On the other side he was happy for his mother that she had the chance to again spend some time with his father... even if she was obviously sharing some of this `time´ with `herself´.

xxx

Son Gohan´s family, in opposite to the Briefs, was at the Tournament, somewhere under the spectators. That meant Chichi and his brother Goten. But they had also brought the younger version of Trunks along as well, who wanted to see his older self and Son Gohan fight.

Both of the children had considered joining the Junior Department - after being told that they wouldn´t be able to join the actual Tournament - but then decided against it. There would be simply no worthy opponents there besides each other. And sparring under themselves was something they could do whenever they wanted.

So they settled for being spectators... at least for the moment.

xxx

The preliminaries, if you could even call it that, consisted merely of a large `punching machine´ - actually a measuring device - that was here to determine the strength of every fighter, to choose which of them would get into the end-round.

For the Z-fighters it was just an idiocy... and secretly for many other people here as well. They all knew that skill, technique and speed were for a fighter just as important as pure strength.

But nobody actually said anything against it as long as Mister Satan himself didn´t. If the savior of mankind accepted this methods, why shouldn´t they?

The dozens of participants were lined up and waiting... once again... this time in front of the large, actually quite bizarre looking, device.

Beside the machine were standing two of the temple-monks from the matial arts order who served as overseers and aides at the tournament.

It was here that Gohan met Videl again. Like them she was waiting here for her turn.

"I see you have come," she greeted him, "...and you are not alone." She noticed the others.

"Yes, this are friends of me," Gohan responded, "Trunks," he gestured to him, "Ma Junior," he said, using Piccolo´s alias for the Budokai, "and..."

"Eighteen," she introduced herself.

"What kind of name is that?" she asked. "Are you calling yourself that for the tournament? Like the fighter Anonymus some years ago."

Anonymus, they all knew, was actually nobody else than Gohan´s mother Chichi who was also somewhere in the stadium right now. A fact that Videl was obviously overseeing, despite that she got engaged to Son Goku right at the Tournament.

For a short moment Gohan thought about introducing them. But then, he didn´t really saw a reason why he should do that. After all he and the others were only here because Videl had been blackmailing him in the first place. And they truly had other things to worry right now.

"Something like that," 18 murmured, replying to Videl´s question.

"Well, but wait..." Videl´s look was now turning to the others. "**Ma Junior**? Wait, you are the finalist of the 23rd Budokai...You are King Piccolo´s son." She nearly shouted the last part.

Piccolo just shrugged.

"Believe me, I have wanted to have nothing to do with the goals of my father for several years now," he responded. After my fight with Son Goku many things have changed."

"He and my father became allies after the 23rd Tournament and Piccolo became a close friend to our family," Gohan told her.

"Really?..." she said, "... who would have thought." She was somewhat shocked about this revelation, but also somewhat excited about getting information like this.

While they were talking, in front of them the selection by strength continued.

Mister Satan, as current World Champion had already done the test first. His measuring number had been 138. Everything higher than that would certainly draw attention.

Gohan and the others of course passed the test more than easily. Their only problem was to hold back their strength enough to still be considered human. That meant in their cases they actually barely tipped on the device.

Despite that they all managed to keep their number somewhere around the 200s. Trunks was with 197 a bit below it, the others with numbers of 220, 235 and in Piccolo´s case 241, somewhere above.

Videl was looking at them all in open shock at their rankings. But not nearly as much as the monks or other people around them. If she was honest she should have already expected something like this after seeing Gohan and the others fight.

But... this numbers were even higher than her father´s, but he was the champion. That should have been impossible. Or was it?

Everybody else however was even more perplexed. By the standards of this tournament this numbers were monstrous, surpassing even Mister Satan´s by a large degree, but still in the area that should have been `humanly´ possible - even if barely.

Still they were holding back like hell. It was nearly absurd. Everybody who was actually paying attention should have seen that they were not even trying. Or maybe they just didn´t want to see it. Maybe they didn´t even wanted to consider that someone might be that much stronger than their `Champion´.

The four Z-fighters present were at the same time still more than worried about the presence of The Priest. Before the entire display was over however, they - or at least Trunks - were receiving the next shock right away.

Piccolo noticed him starring at the two figures standing in the line before the machines a dozen meters behind them them.

"Trunks, what is...?" he asked.

"This two," the half-saiyan stated, "I know them. I have met them before," he said quietly to him.

The two they were watching were in fact none other than two of the henchmen of Bojack. One of them was a young woman with long orange hair, the other the large guy with the mohawk. Both of them had the same bluish geen skin and pointy ears like all of their crew.

Trunks couldn´t really remember their names. What in the world were these two doing here?

"Yes?" Piccolo questioned.

"They are followers of a alien warlord named Bojack," Trunks informed them. "He and his men came to Earth a short time after the Cell Games, back in the past that I had originally visited. They tried to take over the planet, we defeated them... You know, the usual story."

"Right," the Namek replied.

"And what are they doing here then?" Gohan asked the rhetorical question. "Let me guess, their master is coming."

"I guess that was what The Priest was talking about," 18 commented.

"You think he is involved in this," Gohan stated, it wasn´t a question.

"Of course."

"How strong exactly are these guys?" Piccolo asked Trunks.

"They were quite strong for the time being, back then. Most of Bojack´s servants were more or less as strong as father and me after we first left the Room of Spirit and Time. Bojack himself was about comparable to Cell... before he had blown himself up," the half-saiyan explained.

"I see," Piccolo replied. "So they are really no match for us as we are now."

"No," Trunks answered they are not. "What we should worry about is The Priest being here. We still have no chance when it comes to him."

"I can not believe that it is coincidence that he shows up here at the same time like these other two," 18 stated, "and that they all would join the tournament. They are probably in league somehow."

"I think you are right," Trunks responded.

"Well, that means that we have one enemy here who completely outmatches us and a couple of others who are completely outmatched by us," 17 remarked. "Don´t you think that makes things interesting?" he grinned.

"I hoped you had outgrown this years ago Seventeen," 18 commented.

"Come on, you know I am just acting sis," her brother replied with a quiet laughter.

The female alien was just taking her place at the machine. She was looking as if she wasn´t really caring about it at all.

"And your name Miss?" one of the monks asked her.

"Zangya," she replied simply.

"Okay Miss Zangya, would you please," the man gestured to the machine.

The alien woman stepped forward and placed a, obviously very light hit on the machine. Like the Z-fighters she wasn´t trying and massively holding back. Unless them however, she didn´t really knew how `much´ she needed to.

The machine was showing a strength rate of 698.

All the regular people around were starring at the display in shock and their jaws dropped.

"This... this has to be a mistake," the monk stammered. "The machine must have a defect. Tell our men to take a look at it... and they shall bring the replacement device," he said to his collegue next to him. "Okay, would you please wait a few minutes until you can try again," he then addressed Zangya and the people still standing in line behind her.

The angry look she send to the man said all too clearly that she was ready to kill him... and by what they knew about Bojack and his group, it was quite possible that she would be doing just that - even here in the open.

Her partner didn´t look much more happy about the delay.

Trunks, Piccolo and Gohan were already preparing themselves to move and save the man´s life.

But they didn´t need to.

Before it came to that the two aliens turned around and took a look behind themselves. The Z-fighters followed their gaze and saw what or rather who they were looking at... The Priest.

The small denying gesture he made with his hand - nobody would have paid attention to it, unless they knew what to look for. Like the Z-fighters did.

Zangya nearly instantly calmed down... or was at least holding her cool at the outside.

"Yes, they are definitely working together," Piccolo stated.

Gohan nodded to this.

A few minutes later, in their second try, both aliens managed to keep their number at around 200 this time, similar like their own group. Afterwards things continued more or less normally.

As The Priest had his turn his rate was 247... what spoke volumes about his level of control, given his nearly unbelievable power.

After him came still a few others. None however made a number over 90.

In the end the sixteen participants of the next round had been chosen.

...And it was nearly directly followed by the drawing of the fight-pairings. This however would be taking place directly at the ring.

Before that however there would be a short break... and a chance for the fighters to prepare themselves for the next round... or better said the actual tournament.

The four Z-fighters... and 17 who was technically certainly one by now but had some time ago told them that he didn´t want to be called a part of the group... used this time to take a closer look at the place.

Beside Piccolo none of them had actually been at the tournament before. They were curious about the place where Son Goku, Krillin, Yamchu and the others had been fighting so often in their youth.

As far as Piccolo saw, the greatest difference was that everything had turned a bit bigger, a bit loudder and with less substance. Or as he called it, the tournament had `turned into nothing but a stupid show´.

xxxxxxx

_The early Afternoon of the same day_

It was by now a few hours later. The Junior section had already ended and the actual Tournament was about to beginn.

The combatants were now assembled in front of the ring, where the Announcer was standing beside a box. Piccolo saw that it was still the same blonde man as from 17 years ago at the 23rd finale, even if he had visibly aged.

Inside the box were 16 small numbered balls that they would draw to determine who will fight who.

The announcer would read the names of all of them and everyone would draw one out of the box. Depending on which number each combatant would get, the pairings would be decided.

It was just beginning. The announcer had started calling them.

First came one of the regular humans that meade it into this round. It was a young man with very long blonde hair, who went by the name Jewel. By his posture and the way he was giving himself it was clear that he was thinking very high of himself.

That was even more underlined by the fact that he had a group of, what were obviously screaming fangirls, in the audience.

After Jewel came someone they knew.

"Bido..." the announcer said, "would Mister Bido please step forward."

The alien did what he was told without any sign of discomfort or that anything was unusual. If he and the woman were here to cause trouble, they were clearly going by a certain now he simply pulled one of the balla out of the box as if he were a simple combatant. He had the number 5.

The rest of the drawing continued without any greater incidents.

As 17 and 18 and a bit afterwards The Priest were called, the Announcer and also his aide were giving either of them somewhat strange looks. With the cyborg twins in first line because of their `names´. There had always been combatants who gave themselves strange names for the fight... but just numbers and that from two fighters who were obviously related, that was something new even here.

He actually asked them if they were truly called that. But both of them only gave short remarks as answer.

18 made even a comment about their `father´, that was clearly refering to Doctor Gero.

For Trunks it sounded like: "He was kind of screwed up in the head our father."

17 just stated that it made it... "...easier to take count of his children."

Sometimes the half-saiyan didn´t quite get the humor of the male Android.

For The Priest it was because he was here still clad in his full black cloak and mask. This was clearly **not** the ideal clothing for a tournament - far from it.

"The Priest... is this another alias?" the Announcer asked.

"No..." he replied, "it is my actual profession. I follow the calling of my god."

"Oh and then you are participating here?"

"Yes, it is the divine will," he said.

"Will it not be a bit difficult to fight in these clothes?" the Announcer asked him.

"It won´t be a problem," he told him.

"Okay, then please take you number Your Holiness," the man replied.

The Z-fighters, especially Piccolo with his namekian ears, had followed the bizarre exchange. Having a monster like The Priest being called `Your Holiness´ was strange enough. Obviously the Announcer mistook him for a member of some obscure sect.

But what was really unsettling was the comment that his presence here was the divine will of his god. After all the Z-fighters had an idea who his god was from their talks with the Kaioshin.

The Priest draw the number 3. That meant he would be in the second fight.

As Piccolo was called, asked him to his surprise `not to blow up the ring´... until he remembered that was exactly what he did the last time he was in the tournament. He had the number 6.

That meant the alien Bido would be his opponent. Nothing that he couldn´t easily deal with of course. But not `completely´ boring either.

Son Gohan´s classmate Videl was the next who draw her number...it was the 13.

For the rest, nothing unusual happened. They were all called one by one, in all 15 combatants. Mister Satan, the final participant and Champion had already drawn his number beforehand, as the Announcer had explained. So there were only the others left.

The finally decided fight-pairings were this:

1\. Fight: Killa vs Eighteen

2\. The Priest vs Mighty Mask

3\. Bido vs Piccolo

4\. Jewel vs Zangya

5\. Son Gohan vs Torangee

6\. Mister Satan vs Seventeen

7\. Videl vs King Chappa

8\. Mirai Trunks vs Carso

It wasn´t the most interesting match-up. At least as far as it came to the Z-fighters.

With the exception of Piccolo, none of them would be facing each other or any of the other strong fighters - Or The Priest for that matter.

The Namek was the only one at least confronted with one of Bojack´s henchmen... and would probably face the next one afterwards in the Quarter-Finals.

For the others though, it were only regular people they would be fighting against, very strong for regular humans but still no challenge for people like them. This was not arrogance talking but simply facts. They all had been facing super-human opponents for many years.

They could only hope that The Priest and the other two would not go against the rules and actually kill someone.

... And there was of course 17 going against Mister Satan. Part of them, a really strong part, would have really liked to see the `Champion´ taken down a few pegs.

On the other side they also remembered their conversation with Son Goku, that Mister Satan at least gave the people of Earth hope and kept fear and panic from taking over. After Cell and Ne-Me-Sys, after being faced with complete destruction twice, you could not underestimate how important that was. Even more with The Priest still around and who knew what he was planning.

But there was also the fact that this hope was build on a lie. Should they really let this guy get away with everything again, just to keep the peace?

A peace that would crumble anyway if their `hero´ should ever slip up and let it show how helpless he truly was against such threats. So what would it be?

That way or the other, they would have to discuss with Seventeen what they were about to do.

xxx

Gohan´s classmate Videl was fighting against one of Son Goku´s old opponents from the Tournament, a fighter famous in his own right... even if he had aged quite a bit by now.

All in all she was glad about this constellation. She had actually hoped to fight Gohan, but she could still do that in one of the later fights. Still a famous fighter like King Chappa sounded like a challenge, even for her. But after all she was here to fight worthy opponents.

Of course Videl didn´t knew about the true nature of many of the fighters here, if she knew she would have realized just how hopeless and to say it blunt, ridiculous her entire venture was.

But Gohan, didn´t just trust her enough to reveal everything to her... at least for now.

xxx

The first fight was starting.

18´s opponent was a tall dark skinned man, obviously a boxer from his fighting style.

It didn´t even matter. Whatever he style was, however good he was at it, a normal person with absolutely no ki control, like he would never have a chance against a being like Eighteen.

The Announcer opened the match and Killa started by taking a fighting stance. 18 just kept standing there for a few moments, seemingly in thought and paying no attention to her opponent.

"Hey are you ready?" he asked her.

Then, after a short hesitation, she took her own stance. Which she of course not even needed.

"Yes, I am... sorry," she said to him. A part of her was really sorry, since she made it look as if she disrespected her opponent, even if he was so outmatched that it was not even funny.

Still the man had done nothing to deserve disrespectfull treatment from her. In opposite to some others here he wasn´t a complete jerk.

She send out an angry look at Jewel, who had been trying to hit on her earlier.

"I won´t hold back," Killa told her in this moment and instantly opened the fight.

He ran forward, drawing back his fist to prepare a punch. But far faster as he could see 18 had moved right in front of him and landed a hit right into his stomach, a very light one by her standards, but it was enough to send him flying out of the ring.

"... but **I** did," she murmured quietly.

The stadium meanwhile was filled with cheers at her quick victory.

xxx

"Just as expected," Gohan said to Trunks.

"Yes, 18 was really going easy on him... this guy was not even knocked out," he commented, looking at Killa who was just trying to stand up again.

"But now things are getting more serious," Gohan stated, "The Priest is fighting."

xxx

The next fight was being opened.

Similar to the one before, both fighters were not moving for a few moments. In opposite to the last fight however, both of them stayed silent and didn´t say a single word.

Both fighters were clothed in a way that seemed very impractical for a fight. Similar to The Priest, his opponent was hiding his face, he however under a hood made of cloth. To that he was wearing a long blue cape.

Both of them were looking kind of weird, in the eyes of most spectators.

The Priest actually made an inviting gesture with his hand, prompting his opponent to come closer.

Mighty Mask responded instantly and attacked... faster than any normal person could do it, as both Trunks and Son Gohan noticed at the sidelines.

xxx

To that came that, at a closer look, Mighty Mask´s feet seemed for some reason to be levitating a few centimeters above the ground during the fight, as the two Z-fighters realized.

As they actually tried to sense the energy of the `mysterious´ fighter they sensed who it was, the younger Trunks and Son Goten.

"This little idiots," Son Gohan called out. "Don´t they know who they are messing with?"

"We can only hope that The Priest will follow the rules," Trunks stated... in a mix of worry and shock, that his younger self had done something like that.

xxx

Mighty Mask was bombarding his oppenent with punches and kicks, but The Priest didn´t even flinch, even as Trunks and Goten, as they sensed, had gone into super-saiyajin.

Then he made a single movement. It looked like not much more like a little peg on Mighty Mask´s shoulder, but similar like Killa before, the disguised Trunks and Goten were thrown out of the ring and hit the ground hard... but they were alright.

"Thank Kami for that," Mirai Trunks said.

"I am only glad that you have matured a bit from that brat," 18 commented.

"Hey, **I** have never been that bad when I was younger."

"Then maybe it is just your father´s influence," she remarked sarcastically.

xxxxxxx

Two fights were over, both with instant ring-outs with the first move of the winners. The difference in power was just too great in both cases.

In every case the audience was still cheering about this two quick victories. Still they were now hoping for a fight that would be a bit more evenly. The next one was similar as the first two, but still taken somewhat more serious by the coming winner. Piccolo was far superior to Bido in every way that counted, so much was clear.

There was still the fact that his opponent was a dangerous and unpredictable alien criminal and in opposite to The Priest, Piccolo actually cared what happened to bystanders. So he would be more careful.

The Announcer opened the match.

Piccolo knew he could obliterate him in a single moment, easily. But killing his opponent was forbidden. Still he would end this as quickly, with as little risk for the audience as possible.

He took a fighting stance that was mirrored by the heran.

"Now, let us see what you fighters on Earth can do," Bido finally spoke, inviting the battle to beginn.

It was Piccolo who made the first move.

He didn´t bother to drop his weighted clothing. Despite taking it halfway `serious´, he wanted to take at least something of an exercise out of this fight.

Piccolo appeared right in front of his opponent and placed a few very light punches, that forced the alien to block and move backwards.

Bido lifted up into the air, trying to bring more distance between himself and the Namek.

There he tried to prepare a ki attack.

But Piccolo had of course followed him. Before Bido could even fire his blast, his opponent appeared next to him and gave him a `light´ chop at the side of his neck. This caused him to instantly pass out and send him flying downwards where he hit the ground just outside of the ring.

The Announcer declared the match over instantly.

The stadium now exploded in applause about this unbelievable display. Especially since they had seen both combatants actually fly. It might have been a trick, but it was still an impressive sight.

Zangya was just watching him, looking up from her place at the lines. She admitted they had underestimated this Earth fighters. It was clear that Master Bojack would be needed here personally.

xxx

The next fight happened more more less like one would have expected, if you took a look at the two competitors.

One was a beautiful young woman, even one with bluish skin and pointed ears, the other was Jewel, who had in the time he was here had already gained the reputation of a hopeless flirt and womanizer.

"Now, you are truly a beauty," he said after he was able to get a closer look at his opponent, "an exotic one too. How about if when the Tournament is over we two spend some time together?"

Zangya didn´t say anything. She just moved and punched him directly in the face. A few of his teeth were clearly been broken out.

The man had lost consciousness. Zangya realized this as well and just threw him carelessly out of the ring.

"Be glad that I am under orders not to kill anyone here till the Master arrives. To think that you actually believed you were worthy of me you worm."

Barely anyone heard her quiet declaration, with one exception. Like so many other people she didn´t know how good the ears of a Namek were, in fact she had never really interacted with this species before.

Piccolo had heard every word. Not that it was a great surprise for him. It was not hard to guess that this Bojack himself would also appear soon.

**Him**, they would be ready to deal with. It was The Priest they were worried about.

xxxxxxx

_At the same time in space_

Not far away from Earth, a fleet of space-ships was coming closer to the planet. In just a few minutes the fleet would reach their new target.

On bord of the flagship, in a small cell, was sitting a single prisoner and waiting about what was to happen.

The two soldiers who were guarding the door got a surprise when they heard a voice addressing them, especially since it was the voice of a young woman.

"Hello guys, now what are you doing here..." she asked them, "... all alone?" She said this in a `girlish´ voice and gave them a smile.

They both recognized her. She was one of the `guests´ their new master Bojack had been housing for the last weeks. They didn´t knew much about them, except a few rumors... and that they are said to be dangerous, maybe even as dangerous as Master Bojack himself.

One of them was said to be something called a Dark Priest. They didn´t even knew what that was, but Bojack was certainly impressed by it alone.

So despite her harmless appearance and behavior right now, they knew to be careful with her.

"We have orders not to let anyone close to the prisoner," one of the soldiers stated.

"Prisoner? Oh, you mean the guy we have seen with Bojack earlier, before he has blown up that planet?" she questioned.

"Yes," the man answered.

"You know," Mirai 18 said, "I found it interesting to watch. But it was over so quickly. To be honest, I still prefer the `direct´ method. Actually being their, blowing up cities, shooting **them**, seeing them die by my hands, seeing the blood spilt, seeing them tremble and then perish before me. You know what I mean?"

"Y... yes," the soldier replied now nervously.

"Good... then **this** should not surprise you," she stated.

Before one of them could even realized it, she had moved and casually broken one of the men´s neck. Then she gave the other a punch that cracked his rips and destroyed his internal organs. Both fell down dead.

"See? **That´s** what I meant," she said and laughed wickedly.

She opened the cell, by simply ripping out the door.

Inside was sitting a small statued saiyan, just starring at the walls, in something that looked like resignation.

"Here you are. You are Tarble, aren´t you? Vegeta´s brother. Do you want to see him again?"

The saiyan now turned around to her.

"You? I have seen you... there... with **them**," he told her. "Seeing him, what would that bring?" he said in a defeated voice. "Bojack has already destroyed my home, killed my wife... and now he is going after Vegeta and the world he is living on. He will destroy them as well. And you and your comrades have helped him," he accused her.

She just looked at him curiously.

"Really, I would have never expected to get that kind of talk from a saiyan," she commented. "But don´t worry... you are wrong, very wrong. You see, your brother is stronger than Bojack, much stronger... and he has allies who are just as strong. Bojack is going right into a trap. Very soon the galaxy will be free of him. Isn´t that what you want?"

Tarble was now looking at her again, with an unreadable expression.

"I am here to bring you to him," 18 continued. "Did you know that your brother had married as well? You actually have a nephew on Earth. His name is Trunks. Don´t you want to meet him?

He and I know each other quite well by the way. I know I would really like to see Trunks again."

xxxxxxx

_Earth, the Tenkaichi Budokai_

Gohan´s match was just about to come to an end.

His opponent, a tall man with short black hair - clad in oriental looking clothes, was far more exceptional as he had first thought. Whoever this Torangee was, he was good...more than good. He possessed great strength and speed and at least rudimentary ki control, an impressive fighting style and obviously a wide knowledge of martial arts.

He might even rival Tao PaiPai before he became a cyborg or Master Roshi. But of course he still stood no chance.

Videl who was watching this fight intensely had similar thoughts. This Torangee was clearly very strong. But Son Gohan had been dominating the fight from the beginning. It was impressive. Just as she had expected from someone like him.

At this point Gohan decided to end it. He moved next to his opponent and, similar to Piccolo before, placed a light hit on him that send him unconscious.

The Announcer begann to count to ten. But Son Gohan knew it was over. A few moments later he was declared the winner.

xxx

The next fight was beginning in the Tournament. It was the one the audience had been waiting for the most.

Even if - at least in their minds - the outcome of the match was already decided. Just like the other ones had been in reality.

None of them had really any doubts that Mister Satan would win.

Even more since his opponent seemed to be still a teenager. But at least they would have the chance the see the Champ fight.

In the ring the match had just been opened and Mister Satan, like so often, begann it with showing some of his fighting moves.

Then Satan finally turned to his opponent. A harmless teenager as he saw him.

"Now kid, you truly have bad luck that you have to face the Champion right in the first round. But at least you will get to tell your friends that you had been in the ring with Mister Satan himself. Don´t worry, I won´t be too hard on you and holding back."

17 was just standing there, smiling at him. Not saying anything.

Mister Satan however misinterpreted this and begann to laugh loudly.

"Ha ha ha... I understand if you are intimidated kid. But you don´t have to be afraid. We are sportsmen here after all."

"So tell me, how has he been?" 17 finally adressed him in a serious voice.

Mister Satan of course could not quite make anything out of the question of the teenager.

"How was who?" he asked confused.

"Who? Cell of course. I would really have liked to met him you know. But since he is long gone, I never had the chance. It´s a shame. But now I am standing at least before the one who has defeated him. It is at least a consolation," 17 explained. "You **have** defeated Cell, haven´t you?" he asked.

"O...of course I have," Mister Satan answered the obviously psychotic young man. Who in their right mind would have wanted to meet Cell? The memory of that monster alone still gave him the creeps, even after all these years.

"Really? Then **this** should not bother you much," the Android stated.

He moved, far quicker than any untrained eye could see and punched his opponent right in the stomach.

Mister Satan was sure about one thing at the moment, he had never felt that much pain before, not even when Cell had send him flying into a rock-formation. It felt as if his guts had been ripped to shreds. He was sure he felt at least one of his rips breaking.

He could barely hold himself on his legs, bending over in immense pain and staggered as he tried to walk... and then he was coughing up blood. He wanted to scream but he couldn´t.

The audience could only watch in silent and complete shock what was happening to their Champion.

Videl nearly panicked as he saw the state her father was in and fought down the urge to run forward and interfere

17 however was only looking at him without care.

He grabbed his opponent by the throat and lifted him up, cutting off his air supply.

"And here I have been told that you were strong," he said to him coldly. "Now, we must find a way to punish this disappointment... don´t you agree?"

17 took a grip on his hand and did something that nobody in the stadium would had expected and that shocked everyone even more, he started to break one of Mister Satan´s fingers, who was now really howling in pain.

Like everybody else the present Z-fighters were watching with open hanging mouths what their `friend´ was doing.

"Seventeen, what the hell do you think you are doing?" Gohan yelled.

It was in this moment that they realized it. The things he was doing, the look in his eyes, the malicious expression...

17 had told them that he didn´t plan to come to the Tournament. The woman named Mari wasn´t here with him.

And The Priest was here as well.

This **wasn´t** `their´ Seventeen.

"Damn it," Trunks and Piccolo called out nearly at the same time as they realized it.

They all jumped forward, intending to stop the murderous Android before he killed his victim.

But before they could The Priest suddenly appeared right in front of them, blocking their way.

He was now holding a sword, that he had obviously been carrying under his robe, in one of his outstretched hands.

Trunks froze as he got a closer look at the weapon.

He knew it,... he would recognize it anywhere.

There had only been two persons he had ever known to wield it. The first was a hero, a man from a long time ago who died to stop an ancient monster. The other one was...

It was the same weapon that...

* * *

**Authors notes:**

Side-comment: Yes, it was implied that Vegeta had threesomes with both Bulmas here.

The identity of The Priest is about to be revealed. Most readers will probably know it after reading the last part or at least have a very good idea.

I had already placed some subtle hints into a few of the last chapters who he truly is. The official revelation will be in the next one.


	21. Chapter 21: Face of Evil

**Chapter 21**

Trunks was starring at the sword The Priest was holding in his hand. It was the same as his own.

How? he asked himself... Sure, The Priest came from one of the many alternate worlds, but...

"Where did you got that weapon?" he called out. But deep down he was already suspecting the answer.

"I think you have already a pretty good idea about this, don´t you Trunks?" The Priest stated.

Yes, he indeed had a theory. But his mind just didn´t want to accept this possibility.

Trunks knew he **needed** to see who was under the mask. There was no way he would find any peace of mind if he didn´t.

A few meters behind them, Seventeen - the one from Trunks timeline, not their own, as they knew now - was still holding Mister Satan in a stranglehold.

The audience could only watch in stunned silence as their idol was first being crushed... and now tortured... by what looked like nothing more than a teenager. How could this be?

17 had just broken his second finger by now. The man was screaming in pain and it looked as if he was not far away from passing out. But he stayed awake.

Just as his tormentor was intending.

"Now Mister Satan... or should I simply call you Champ?..." the Android asked him mockingly. "How about a few words to your fans?"

"What?" he said through the confusion of his pain.

"Oh, I see you are confused. Well, let me make it clearer to you. I mean how about you tell them **how** you beat both Cell and N-Me-Sys," Seventeen stated mockingly.

"**No**... I," he stammered.

Mister Satan was desperate. This was not longer a game. He was here being murdered. This boy, no this **monster** knew the truth and he wanted to hear it - here in front of the entire audience. But that would ruin him, destroy his life.

He had only taken the credit for slaying Cell after the other fighters just left... and then things came together by themselves, one by one. He was cast into the role of the Savior of the World and he had to live up to it, somehow. It wasn´t his fault. Well, not entirely.

"Yes, yes, I understand," the Android said in a smooth tone. "It must be horrible, having spend years lying and weaseling yourself through problems... and now suddenly being confronted with one you **can´t** get out."

He smashed his opponent to the ground, damaging his already injured body even further.

"Say it," 17 growled now.

"I... can´t."

It was over, Mister Satan knew, all of it. Telling everything would destroy him, completely nothing less. But if he didn´t, he would not even survive this fight. But how could he? If he admitted everything, it would ruin even Videl.

"Say it or I will continue breaking your bones one by one," the Android said coldly.

"I am sorry," Mister Satan shouted, finally giving in. "I am sorry but I lied to you all. I didn´t defeat Cell... and Ne-Me-Sys neither. I didn´t even fought him. It was all already over when I arrived. It were all those super fighters, they beat **both** of them."

The people in the stadium could barely believe what they were hearing. It was all a lie?

Sure, he was literally being tortured into saying this, right before their eyes, but how else could this `teenager´ even beating and tormenting him like this. The Mister Satan they had imagined would have beaten this boy easily and not lying bleeding to his feet.

There was no other explanation, their Champion, their hero... was nothing but an impostor. The shocked silence continued for a few more seconds, only interrupted by a few shouts of anger. This shouts though were slowly becoming more and more.

Under all this people was also Videl, she could not quite believe what she had just heard... still, given all what she had found out in the last weeks, she admitted it made all too much sense. Especially since she knew now that these `tricks´ Gohan and the other fighters used were no tricks at all.

Her father had lied to her... had lied to everyone.

The Priest was still blocking the way of the Z-fighters and the other fighters from the Tournament. The two aliens Zangya and Bido were just standing in some distance and watching, not bothering to get involved themselves.

That meant nobody was even able to help... Unless someone did something stupid.

And of course that was exactly what happened.

Fraud or now, a few of the other fighters had just decided that they would not longer watch the World Champion get tortured.

Carso, the man Trunks had been supposed to fight, was a competent martial artist. But he was also quite overconfident. He had seen what some of the other participants were able to do... and the fact that even they were holding back in front of the robed figure should have told him what **this** opponent was capable of.

But still he felt the need to charge forward in an attempt to save Mister Satan. Or maybe he could just not stand by and watch how a defenseless man was slowly being murdered.

Killa, who had been out during most of the tournament thanks to Eighteen and had not seen the other Z-fighters in action, followed him after a short moment.

xxx

Videl of the other hand, the one who actually had the greatest interest to save her father, was still standing frozen in place from the shock of all she had just heard and seen. Not be quite able to completely comprehend all what just happened.

It was not just that her father had lied, that she admitted shouldn´t even have surprised her much after all she had seen, but even more the fact the the truth had so suddenly be revealed to the entire world, in such a brutal way... and now his life was being threatened right in front of her.

She knew she wanted to do something, but somehow she just couldn´t move. It wasn´t fear, it was simply that her mind couldn´t quite catch up with the events.

But that fact was probably that **saved** her life.

xxx

Mirai Trunks, Son Gohan, 18 and Piccolo were still in their stand-of situation with The Priest.

A stand of that was right now being interrupted.

"No, wait," Gohan called out as he suddenly saw the two human fighters running forward.

"This fools will get killed," Piccolo exclaimed.

But it was already too late.

The Priest only made a slight gesture with his hand through the air and the body of the first fighter, who was still around ten meters away from him, was being ripped in two halves.

It as followed, split seconds later, by 17 firing a ki blast from his finger right through the body of the second man, killing him instantly as well, a amused grin on his face.

The Z-fighters were moving a few steps, just enough to take better positions to protect the rest of the people present.

In this moment someone else made his presence known.

"I see you have returned," they heard Vegeta´s loud voice.

They saw that the Saiyan Prince was standing on top of the outer wall of the stadium.

"Ah Vegeta," The Priest countered, "I see you have made it. Now nearly all the important actors in our little drama are here." He looked around.

"Now the real `fun´ is about to begin," he said in Seventeen´s direction.

xxxxxxx

Just at the same time, in the orbit over the planet the incoming fleet arrived. It were seven ships at all, most of them types from Freezer´s old empire, who started to scan the planet.

On bord of the flaggship, Lord Bojack was sitting in the command chair, waiting for the initial report from his men.

They were busy making out the locations of the largest population centers, the geography of this world and other details.

The place of his main targets however, he was already aware of. He just needed to concentrate on the energy signatures of Bido and Zangya. As his temporally ally promised him, the strongest fighters of this world would be assembled at this Tournament they were taking part in. Good, that made it much easier.

"We have reached the planet´s orbit," one of the soldiers reported. "All ships are ready to descent into the atmosphere."

"Good," Bojack replied, "prepare the troops for exit. Wait with the landing until we have broken most of the resistance. Head for the location our guests has given us. Come," he declared, "this planet is ours."

His men cheered around him, some because they were actually excited, some because they knew it was expected of them... and that their master could and **would** kill them just as easily as the people down on this planet.

As soon as the ships had reached the atmosphere, in the entire fleet, air locks were being opened and crowds of soldiers streamed flying outside.

xxxxxxx

The Priest stepped on the fighting-ring and turned to the audience.

"People of Earth," he addressed them, "as you have found out, your so called Great Champion had been revealed as what he truly is, what he has been the entire time, a **fraud**... am impostor.

Yes, he has lied to you, but the truth is the blame doesn´t lie **only** with him. It was **you** who had believed everything he said without a shred of evidence. It was **you** who had decided to ignore their common sense and didn´t trust your own eyes and instead believed even the most absurd claims he made without question.

It was **you** who belittled the efforts and achievements of other on **his** unproven worth. It was **you** who turned the fraud into an idol and levited him to godhood.

Life, people of Earth, is a test... a challenge... and you, **all** of you, have failed miserable," The Priest ended his speech.

"Now it is time to pay the price for your failure," he said, casually raising his arm... starting to prepare a ki blast, aiming directly at the seats of the stadium.

It wasn´t particular strong. With his kind of power he could easily obliterate this planet a thousand times over otherwise.

As he fired however someone interfered, just like he had expected. A bit surprising was it that it was Vegeta of all people who had jumped in an was blocking the blast.

The Saiyan Prince was usually the last one out of their group who showed worry about normal people. But on the other side it was also clear that he had the best chance of all of them since the unleashing of his latent power.

Trunks was reminded of one of the scenes from the other timelines that Ne-Me-Sys had shown to him. It was now as if he was watching a twisted version of it.

He remembered how he watched how, in the other timeline, his father got possessed by Babidi´s magic and fired into the spectator rangs, with Son Goku trying to stop him. This time it was Vegeta who was trying to stop the blasts... and the one firing them was...

But The Priest simply raised his other hand and fired another shot, directly in the opposite direction, at the other side of the stadium.

They all had been concentrating on the other blast that Vegeta had been trying to stop and couldn´t react in time anymore.

The attack hit the seats, killing everyone who was sitting in this area, blew a large chunk out of the stadium... and continued it´s course, leveling part of the city behind it.

Now the expression of the people at the rangs around it, the ones who were still alive, changed from shocked silence from the revelation about Mister Satan, to absolute horror and open panic. One thing was absolutely clear to them, **this** were no tricks.

Some of the people were starting to scream, many were trying to run away, to get out of here. That however could only result in a mass panic.

"No," Trunks could only say as he saw what happened.

"That bastard," 18 exclaimed.

"Hey you, stop it," he heard someone yelling. The voice was a younger version of his own.

As they looked around, they saw that Son Goten and his younger counterpart had shadded their `Mighty Mask´ disguise and were now in their Super Saiyajin forms.

Trunks admitted in the chaos here he had not even noticed that they had transformed.

"Stay back," he told them.

"Is this this priest guy you have been talking about?" his younger self asked him.

"Yes, he is."

"Strange, I can not feel his energy at all," Son Goten said.

"That is because he is using a different sort of energy. He is stronger than all of us put together, believe me. Keep **away** from him," the older Trunks stated.

"And by the way," Gohan cut in, "what were you thinking taking part in the Tournament as Mighty Mask anyway?... and where is the guy these clothes truly belong to?"

"Oh, we have knocked him out and left him lying around somewhere here," the younger Trunks told him, as if it was all no big deal.

The Priest was only watching the exchange, silently so far.

"What an interesting conversation," he commented. "I actually reminds me of old times. Only that I never was this stupid."

"You," Mirai Trunks growled at him. A part of his anger came from his suspicion who exactly was under the mask.

It was in this moment that they sensed the concentration of energy above them, the arrival of the fleet that had just appeared in orbit and was descending unto them all.

"This is..." Gohan tried to say something.

"Bojack, it has to be him," Trunks stated.

"But as it looks he has more help as you had thought," Piccolo pointed out.

"Maybe you should know that Bojack has taken over parts of Freezer´s army," The Priest informed them. "He has taken his entire fleet here as far as I know. That means for **you**, there are now two choices. Either you stay here and deal with us or you go and stop Bojack´s troops in their attack."

"Of course that means you would not be able to do anything to stop us here. Not that you ever had any in the first place," Seventeen commented. "And of course there is no guaranty that **we** will not go after you anyway if you decide to go fighting the invaders. Maybe we will, maybe we won´t. Lets try and see what happened. Just treat it like a game." He shrugged and gave them a vicious grin.

"You may look like my brother and have some of his habits, but you clearly aren´t him," 18 told him. "While he likes to play his games as well, his would never cost so many lives."

"Well, your brother has clearly a underdeveloped sense of fun," Mirai 17 replied.

"He is not a monster like you," she spat at him.

Seventeen only started to laugh.

"You are sounding like Trunks, you know that? Are you two an item now or something? Now, my real sister won´t be happy when she hears that she is out of the race. Or are you willing to share?" he said laughing.

"Shut up you..." 18 shouted at him.

"**Now** you sound like the Eighteen I know."

"Seventeen," The Priest interrupted them, "don´t you think it is time that we start our game? The fleet is already here."

"Oh yes, it´s truly about time," the Android replied, once again with an evil grin on his face. "If you excuse me, I want to also have some fun somewhere else," he said to the Z-fighters.

"Do you think we will just let you go?" Trunks told him.

"Oh, I think you won´t be able to stop me," he said with a side-glance at The Priest. "What about him?" he questioned, looking at the broken form of Mister Satan.

"He is far more useful alive for my goals," he answered. "Now that his lies had come out... a target for all the fear, rage and frustration. Believe me, he will probably wish that you had killed him very soon." He was completely aware that the injured former World Champion could hear ever word he was saying.

The man was broken, both physically and mentally. In some sense he would have truly prefered if his opponent had just killed him. He knew what would be awaiting him now, a world where he was hated.

"Let us go Seventeen," The Priest said to his partner.

They both flew up into the air, Bido and Zangya followed them in short distance.

The two Trunks, Gohan, Vegeta, Piccolo and Son Goten exchanged a short look.

"We need to do something," Mirai Trunks said.

"Yes," Gohan replied.

"You two," Piccolo addressed the two SSJ children,

As soon as they were gone, Videl who had finally regained control of herself came running forward, actually flying the last part of the way, to help her father.

She kneeled down next to him. A part of her wished she had acted earlier. But she had seen what happened to the others who tried. And if not even Gohan and his friends were able to do something, then she knew how hopeless it was for her or for anyone else here. Now that the truth about her father´s `victory´ was out, she fully realized how far he and the other were above her.

She looked at her father. He was in a terrible state. Still she didn´t think the injuries were life threatening. But he clearly needed medical help. She needed to find a doctor. But how should she find one now? The entire stadium around her was breaking out in complete chaos.

She needed to get him out of here and bring him to a hospital.

"...Videl..." her father said weakly as he recognized her, "...I am sorry."

xxxxxxx

In the sky above them the space-ships were now visible with the naked eye as they were descending down unto the cities of the planet.

The entire world was now breaking out in panic... especially since **this** happened only minutes after it´s greatest hero Mister Satan had been revealed as nothing but a fraud right on live TV, with millions of people watching.

It was a disaster... in more than one sense. Not only was this planet under physical attack, the trust and the hope of it´s citizens had just been shattered.

One of these ships, that was moving in the sky above Satan City, was suddenly shaken by an explosion. But it wasn´t an attack. It came from the inside.

A part of the hull was being blown out of the vessel... and two figures flew outside. It were the saiyajin Tarble and Mirai 18, who had just freed him... for reasons only she alone knew.

The already ongoing mass-panic, was soon accompanied by an even greater terror as the first of the attacking soldiers reached the cities.

xxx

Mirai 18, now flying over the tow, along with Tarble, right in the direction of the stadium where the Budokai took place, was turning back to the ship they had just left.

With a grin she fired a massive ki blast that ripped through the vessel and completely disintigrated it´s front half and let the rest falling down unto the city as burning debris.

Officially she, Seventeen and The Priest may all be allies, she knew. But like all too often the `official´ appearance of things and the truth were quite different.

xxxxxxx

In the Royal Palace, King Furry had been one of the many people following the events. For him at least the truth about Mister Satan was nothing new.

This was what he had been fearing would happen some day, ever since his last conversation with Son Goku. The hero had told him that Mister Satan´s presence was actually a good thing, that his influence on the people kept them from being overcome by their fear, being faced with monsters like Cell or Ne-Me-Sys. What he hadn´t counted on was the terrible impact if the lie would ever been exposed.

As it looked, even Son Goku could not always be right.

What bothered him even more was the fact that this masked person calling himself a priest, who was holding his speech on TV right now and the `teenager´ who had beaten Mister Satan, were obviously doing this on purpose. They had wanted to expose the truth about the World Champion to everyone.

The only question was why? Was it just for the sake of the truth or were there other more sinister motives?

In this moment he was receiving the other catastrophic news... about the alien invasion. He knew his worst fears had become true.

xxxxxxx

Meanwhile Android 17 was having a very good day.

He just fired a small ki blast into a multistory building that exploded from the inside out and left nothing but a smoking ruin. Then with his other hand he send another blast and disintigrated a handfull of people below him running across a street.

Bojack´s flagship, flanked by two other vessels, had just arrived over Satan City two minutes earlier, shortly after The Priest and Seventeen had left the stadium.

Dozens of alien soldiers were already flying over the town, attacking and killing citizens at random, destroying buidings or doing other things to announce their presence.

A few of them had discovered the townshall, raizing it to the ground and killing every human inside in the process. Two others were just blasting away a few people who had been hiding in a street corner.

It was around the same time that 17 himself had decided to join in. He was just flying around, picking targets like he wanted. There were so many to choose from.

The citizens were running from the invaders, the citizens were running from **him**... and everyone not fast enough was getting killed. Some of them didn´t even seemed to be sure **who** they should be running from with him on the one side and the aliens on the other. It was fun.

He had even blasted a few of Bojack´s soldiers in his euphoria, not that it mattered. These mooks were nearly as meaningless to their master as they were to him.

But **this** here... It was pandemonium, it was... great. This was the best game he had in a long time.

It was in this moment that Trunks, Vegeta, Gohan, 18 and Piccolo, who had followed them, were trying to stop him.

But before they could, The Priest was appearing, blocking their way again.

"You again," Vegeta remarked at the cloaked figure.

"Yes, you don´t want to interrupt the proceedings, do you?" The Priest stated.

The two aliens Zangya and Bido were floating in some distance from them, not getting involved or joining their comrades who were already busy ransacking the town. They were just waiting for the arrival of their master, for now.

"**You**, all this is your doing, isn´t it?" Trunks asked him.

"I made an agreement with Bojack. I helped him to gain greater strength and he was all too eager to target Earth anyway, simply because it had been the homeworld of Son Goku," he explained. "...And beside that I had also arranged for myself, Seventeen, Zangya and Bido to take part in the Tournament. The chance that one of us would face Mister Satan and expose this so called World Champion all by itself were quite good. Should we had bad luck with the match-up, I had of course also other ways to reach our goal. But as it was, the Tournament itself had done this for us.

Yes, in some way you could say that this is all **my** doing. Chaos, destruction, mass panic, all that brings me a small step closer to my great goal... the return of my master."

Behind them, one of the space-ships that were cruising above the city exploded in the air right now and was crashing down into the city as a mangled wreck. The impact crushed several building beneath it and the resulting explosion devastated nearly an entire district. Countless houses crumbled or were set on fire.

The Z-fighters starred horrified at what had just happened.

"See..." The Priest declared, "... this is how the last hope dies for this world."

"Forget is you lunatic," Trunks yelled.

"And what are you going to do," The Priest asked, "stop me?"

Without another word Trunks transformed into his SSJ3 form and prepared to attack.

But he was not the only one. Vegeta had secretly been waiting for the chance to make his own move. Piccolo followed him moments later.

As the Saiyan Prince charged his Big Bang attack and fired it at their opponent, the Namek used Solar Flash, in the slight hope to blind The Priest or at least distract him and take him off guard.

Their hopes were shattered very quickly. While the light flash actually forced him to take his eyes off his opponents for a few moments, it changed nothing in the slightest about the outcome.

Like themselves, it was clear that this warrior didn´t need his eyes to fight.

He swatted Vegeta´s Big Bang attack aside as if it was nothing and then, just before he could use his Final Flash, send the Saiyan flying away with a simple kick, a gesture that looked kinda strange with the robe he was wearing.

Then he landed a `light´ punch on Piccolo that knocked the wind out of the Namek and let him fall to the ground.

Trunks charged forward as a SSJ3, but the Priest just caught his fist in the move, held it and kneeled him in the gut and then just threw him downwards.

Well, a cynical part of Trunks thought, at least they were doing better than the last time.

For a second, 18 and Gohan were now alone in front of their enemy, before they decided to fly down and see to the others.

xxx

As Trunks came up again, at the place where he had landed, he was 18 kneeling above him.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

"Yes, he didn´t hit me that hard," he replied. "There is no way we can stop him," he said a bit quieter.

"I think we should for now concentrate on these invaders. The Priest still doesn´t seem interested in killing us. He only interferred when we tried to go against 17," she suggested.

"So you mean we just let the murderous Android rampage through this city?" he questioned.

"Better one Android than thousands of aliens around the entire planet," she retorted.

Both of them looked up in the sky. In some distance Vegeta and Piccolo were coming back to their feet as well.

But they all saw something else that shocked them even more.

Two new figures had just appeared over them. One of them was clearly Eighteen´s double. But she was fighting **against** Bojack´s troops. She tore through their lines as if they were infants, killing every soldier she met with a single hit or blast. Why was she doing this if she, 17 and The Priest were supposedly allied with Bojack?

The other person, who was fighting at her side, was just as surprising to them. He was clearly a saiyajin... another survivor.

But to their even greater surprise, Vegeta actually seemed to know the stranger.

"Tarble?" he called out. "What in the world are you doing here? How did you even come to this planet?"

He asked this question as the other saiyajin was just finishing off one of Bojack´s soldiers. Tarble had become clearly better, Vegeta admitted to himself.

"Hello Vegeta," he greeted him. To the Saiyan Prince´s surprise, his greeting was neither shy or hesitating. In fact he didn´t seem to show any emotion at all, he realized.

"You know him?" Piccolo questioned as the other saiyajin and Mirai 18 were turning to them.

"Yes..." Vegeta responded a bit hesitatedly, "... he is... well... my brother." This was actually one of the few times they had seen Vegeta acting awkward.

"Your brother?" Son Gohan exclaimed.

For a short moment this distracted their attention from everything else that was going on around them.

"You mean I actually had an uncle this entire time," Trunks yelled. "And what in the world are you doing here?" he turned to the 18 from his timeline. "Why are you fighting against Bojack´s men and helping him?"

"I have my reasons. Would you believe me that I have changed my mind about a few things, that The Priest has plans that even **I** would not get along with?"

"No, in fact I don´t believe a single word that comes out of your mouth. This is only another one of your sick games," he accused her angrily. "We should better kill you right here."

"Can you really do this?" she asked him. "What about the secrets about The Priest and his plans what I might knew? What if I could help you to stop him? And what about Bojack´s army? He had thousands of men who are rampaging around this world. You can need **every** help to take them out. How many of your precious humans more would die by their hand without me to kill some of them?"

"Trunks," Piccolo told him, "we will deal with her later. We have other things to worry about right now."

"How in the world have you never mentioned in all this time that you had a brother?" Gohan asked Vegeta.

"To make it short, Tarble was deemed too weak for a saiyan warrior as we were children and an embarrassment for the Royal Family. He was send away from the Planet Vegeta.

That leads to the question how and why are you here. As far as I know our father had send you to another planet to spend your life and that was the last I had heard of you."

Tarble´s face became grim and full of anger.

"The planet I had been send to... that became my new home-world... had been invaded by the Warlord Bojack a few years ago. The entire time he had been terrorizing the people, murdering thousands, taking from the whatever he wanted. And I had never been able to do anything about it.

Now my home-world is gone, it is all destroyed, my wife is dead, everyone I had known... I had been imprisoned in Bojack´s fleet until **she** had freed me." He pointed to Mirai 18.

The others were looking at the saiyajin with some sort of understanding for what he had gone through.

"Yes, I have been looking out to this family reunion," the voice of The Priest interrupted them.

They saw that he had come closer to them once again. He was now flying in only a short distance.

"**You**," Tarble now growled in complete hatred as he saw the flying figure.

"Tarble?" Vegeta questioned.

"You remember that I told you that my home is gone? He had done something with Bojack, he had helped him to become even stronger than before." Tarble gestured to The Priest. "**He** was the one who `adviced´ him to blow up my home-planet just to test his new power."

In this moment Trunks had enough. He just couldn´t take it anymore.

He had not felt this much rage since the day Gohan had died in his timeline. Only minutes before he had found out that he had a uncle... and now he heard that the world that had been his home had been destroyed because of this monster, just like this Earth here was in chaos because of him.

He remembered how he had tried to misuse Shenlong to commit mass genocide... how he had revived the Androids who had terrorized his world since he was a child. No Trunks would not take it anymore.

To that came that he was still struggling with his suspicion who this man truly was.

He had already transformed back into a SSJ3... but his total rage gave him even greater strength for a short time.

Even The Priest seemed to be surprised by this sudden outburst.

Trunks moved forward in an incredible speed and... actually managed to land a hit. He had hit him directly into the face.

Despite this, all of them knew, even with the strength he had just unleashed, it would not be enough to actually damage **this** enemy.

They however realized something else, the mask that was hiding his face had been shattered by the incredible blow and fell off.

Trunks was starring at the robed man before him. The feeling of dread he did have the entire time was now threatening to overcome him. He had feared it... he had seen it coming.

He was looking at his own face.

xxxxxxx

_West-City_

The younger Trunks and Son Goten were just confronting another part of Bojack´s army that had appeared above the hometown of the Briefs. Son Gohan had told them to go here and stop this group of the invaders before he and the others had gone after The Priest.

It didn´t take them long to deal with them... and they didn´t even need to transform into Super Saiyajins. This group here only seemed to consist of weaklings.

They had finished of all the soldiers in only a few minutes, before they were actually able to do much damage to the city and then ended it by blewing the space-ship out of the sky.

"That was kind of fun, but a bit too easy, don´t you think Son Goten?" Trunks stated.

xxxxxxx

Trunks was looking at the twisted mirror image.

His punch, as terrifying as it was, doesn´t seem to have even damaged him at all.

"You..." he said nearly toneless.

"It was only a question of time until you found out who was under this mask anyway," The Priest said. "In fact for my plans to be fulfilled, you needed to find out."

The other Trunks... The Priest... was wearing his lavender hair about shoulder long, a bit shorter as he had done it after his trips into the time-chamber actually. The expression on his face right now was cold, nearly emotionless and incredible hard to read.

The other Z-fighters had the same expression of shock as they saw **who** their enemy was.

"Why... why are you doing all this?" Mirai Trunks could only shout.

"You want an answer... no, an explanation for how I came here?"

"For what you have become?" Trunks yelled.

"Ah, you see, the world where I come from was actually very similar to your own, nearly identical actually, until a certain point. Like in your own, Son Goku died by the heart virus, the Androids attacked, Gohan became my older brother in all but name..."

"Then how did you became like this?" he shouted.

"You might remember, a long time ago, I met an old friend, a hero from the past who had come to Earth. He became someone I looked up to, I admired... like Gohan. He was it who gave me this." He once again draw the sword - identical to Trunks own - out of his robes. "But he had a great problem," he continued, "something that overshadowed his entire life. A monster was sealed inside his body. You know what I am talking about."

Both Trunks were looking each other in the eyes. Yes, they both knew what he was talking about.

"Then some day, as he was loosing control, he asked me to do something for him, something important. You remember, right?"

Mirai Trunks remembered... _he saw his ten year old self standing before his kneeling friend Tapion, who was struggling in pain, begging him to kill him before the monster would be released._

"You," he said.

"I failed that day," The Priest said grimly. "I was too **weak**... I couldn´t do it. But Tapion died anyway. And not only he. The monster was released. My mother, Gohan, Tapion... even Seventeen and Eighteen, they all died by the hands of the monster that was released on my world because of my failure, they and countless thousands of others."

For a moment Trunks actually felt something like compassion for his counterpart.

"The Beast had been causing death and destruction for over a year," The Priest stated. "Until finally someone else came to my Earth, a alien being from another world. Just like I became through him, he had been a follower of the Nameless God. He had become my new mentor, my teacher. From him I learned the way... and to do what is to do.

Since then, I **never** hesitated again. He thought me how to destroy the monster that destroyed everything that meant something to me."

"You did?" Mirai Trunks asked.

"Yes, I destroyed the Beast, but only by eradicating it along with what was left of my home-planet and everyone who was still alive on it."

"You did **what**?" Trunks shouted.

"Everyone who was truly worth something was long gone at that point. The rest were only worthless weaklings."

Every bit of compassion that he had been feeling for his counterpart was dieing just in this moment.

The Priest begann to power up. His body was glowing with a strange and dark energy. His eyes and his hair were changing.

Mirai Trunks recognized this form, he was a Super Saiyajin God. But it was not the same like the transformation he had seen from Son Goku in the other timeline. It was different, twisted.

His hair and eyes were not colored in a pinkish red like with Goku, but in colors of dark grey and black.

"Trunks, do you realize how long I have been looking for you?" The Priest asked him. "How many worlds and timelines I have searched? Dozens had it been... To find you... a version of **us** that is worthy of my plans."

His ki was starting to form itself into the shape of two giant, solid, green shimmering, snakes, made out of pure energy.

Then, as soon as they were complete, they were leashing out. With one move they were hitting Vegeta and Gohan and knocking them out of the sky.

* * *

**Authors notes:** Regarding the Priest and his clothes. Imagine it like Palpatine fighting in his Sith robes.

The identity of The Priest is now completely revealed and it is... Trunks. As it is revealed here the original timeline of the Priest (Trunks) was a world nearly identical to the Mirai timeline until the appearance of Tapion and Hildegarn in it.

In this world, Tapion asked him to kill him in a similar critical moment like in Movie 13. He couldn´t do it, just like the Trunks in the Movie. But here, Son Goku was not alive to stop the monster. So everybody he knew died because of his perceived failure.


	22. Chapter 22: Chaos prevails

**Chapter 22**

The battle all over the planet was still going on.

Bojack´s fleet was attacking on four main locations around the globe, four different cities.

Nearly half of the ships however and most of their fighting power was concentrated in Satan City, where Bojack knew from his ally that the most dangerous enemies were located... at this so called Tournament the locals were holding.

That was the place where he himself and his elite fighters were heading to right now.

xxx

_Satan City_

Bojack had just left the inside his flagship, following the crowds of soldiers that had already passed through the air locks and were now terrorizing the town.

Now he was levitating above this place. Next to him were Bujin and Kogua, the other two members of his elite warriors, the ones who had been his original team before he had taken over the renmant of this alien Freezer´s forces.

A few minutes earlier he had watched one of his space-ship get blown up by an unknown attacker, much to his annoyance. The soldiers on bord were only cannon fodder, just like the vast majority of his troops, but it still hurt his pride somewhat to loose a ship in that way.

Especially since the ship in question had been in the same area as his own flagship as it happened.

The inhabitants of this planet would suffer for this little humiliation, he decided... at least a few of them.

He prepared a ki blast in his right hand.

After a moment... which he used to find a fitting target... he fired it down into the city.

The blast hit one of the larger buildings that had been in his sight. It was a multistoried appartment block, consisting of dozens of individual flats for rent. But Bojack had of course no way to know that. Neither did he care what kind of building he was blowing up as long as he could work out his anger.

It, along with everyone inside, was completely disintigrated. But the explosion didn´t end here. It swallowed the entire area and the neighboring houses as well. At the streets close by some people who saw what was happening were trying desperately - even when it was clearly hopeless - to run away, but they too were burned to ashes.

Thousands had just died just to satisfy the pride of one being.

... And at the same time the universe itself was shaken even more out of balance.

Meanwhile all around the world, the chaos continued.

xxxxxxx

Miles away Videl had just brought her father to a hospital. It was one at the outer areas of the town.

As far as had seen, the city core and most of the inner districts had been turned into Hell on Earth. The hospitals there were probably even more overrun than this one.

And given what had happened it was in question if her father would have even gotten there any help at all there.

Never before had she been that glad that Gohan had thought her how to fly.

Even here a few nurses and even some of the doctors had been looking at her father and at her in pure anger as she had brought him... before they finally checked him in.

It was hard to come to terms with, but she knew that her father was hated now, probably by everyone. Not that she couldn´t understand why.

Right now she was waiting in the corridor in front of the operation room for what the doctors would have to tell her. It was only now that the full impact of all what had happened became fully clear to her.

Her life as she had known it was over. From now on the name `Mister Satan´ would be standing for falsehood and betrayal.

It was in this moment that she heard the shouting coming from the direction where the reception had been, shouts that were quickly coming closer. Less than a minute later she saw **them**.

She saw two men walking in her direction. Next to them was one of the nurses, who was moving visibly nervously alongside them. Videl noticed now that both of the men were armed, one was carrying a handgun, the other a riffle.

They were obviously threatening the woman.

"Okay, where is Mister Satan," one of them shouted. "We know that he is here. Give him to us."

The two men pointed their weapons at everyone around them, doctors, other nurses, patients, all who just happened to be in the corridor.

"Nobody needs to get hurt," the man exclaimed. "All we want is that goddamned **liar**."

Videl could only stare at the scene. She had known that things were bad... but this? This was madness.

"What in the world are you doing?" she exclaimed. All eyes suddenly turned to her.

She realized that it might not have been such a good idea to speak up like that.

"Look, one of the two men said, "it is Mister Satan´t little bitch. Still thinking she can rip her mouth open like that."

"Stand back everyone," the other one warned them, holding his gun at a doctor and a orderly standing close by. "First we will deal with the great fraud himself and then with his spawn there. Satan will pay for playing us all for fools for all this years. Don´t stand in our way."

"Yeah," the other man agreed.

"I won´t let you lay a hand on dad," Videl stated.

"Oh look, the brat is trying to stop us," the first man replied.

"That won´t help her. I bet she is just as much of a fraud as her father," the other told him.

"Lets put her down first." He aimed his riffle at her and pulled the trigger.

Instinctively she moved out of the way as he fired. The bullet missed.

But then she noticed that the shot had instead hit another woman who had been standing at the other side of the room. She had sank down and was bleeding heavily from a visible wound at her side.

At this point, Videl had enough. She moved... before she herself had even fully realized it.

She wasn´t running, she was flying the short distance through the air... and appeared right next to the first man. Without any hesitation she punched him in the guts.

The blow was hard enough to send the man flying against the wall behind him. Videl though she could actually hear a few of his bones cracking, but she didn´t care anymore.

Then she landed a kick in the face of the other guy who was just pointing his gun at her. Like his partner he went down instantly.

A few of the people around started to cheer or clap with their hands. But it was all a bit restrained. As if the people were holding back from applauding a member of her family.

It was less than a minute later when men in police uniforms were storming into the hospital, having been informed what happened.

They took the two men into custody while asking a few questions to Videl and the other bystanders.

After some more time that she had spend talking with the cops, she saw two men in black and grey colored business suits approaching.

"Miss Videl," one of them addressed her, "we are from the Royal Security Service," he informed her. "We want to talk to you about the question of the safety of your father."

xxxxxxx

_Central City_

The invasion was continuing at different parts of the planet.

While Son Goten and the young version of Trunks were moving to stop the attackers, here they were coming `a bit´ too late though.

One of Bojack´s ships was standing up in the sky. Soldier had already swarmed down into the city, razing the place and terrorizing the citizens.

The streets in the core areas were littered with dozens, maybe hundreds, of dead bodies, various houses were standing in flames.

The king himself and other political leaders had already been evacuated, trying to get a hold on the situation around the globe from a save place. Furry for his part knew the only chance to stop the invaders was the group of fighters that had been around Son Goku.

"Do you see that Trunks?" Son Goten asked his friend as they arrived over the city and saw the damage that had already been caused.

"Yes..." he replied angrily, "let us get them."

They had already wiped out the invaders in Trunks hometown West City and then found and destroyed a ship in the area of the Northern Districts that was heading to the North Capital.

This time however it would not be so easy for them as the last times. Abo and Cado, two of Bojack´s strongest warriors, were here with this group.

Like before, after their arrival, Trunks and Goten started instantly to take out the soldiers who were ransacking the town. Most of them died or were knocked unconscious with little resistance. They might have been children, but they were still saiyajins and saw little reason to be gentle with people who were invading their world and killing people on sight.

All except this two. Abo and Cado had just been busy blowing up buildings one by one at the town square as their opponents arrived.

Cado was being kicked in the head and send flying away, just as he was about to blow up a small backery. Seconds later his brother Abo met a similar fate as his stomach was hit by Son Goten´s fist.

But they weren´t two of Bojack´s and before that two of Freezer´s strongest warriors for nothing. They were already coming back up again.

Both glared at their attackers and went into fighting position.

"Look Son Goten, it seems it won´t be as boring against this two as against the rest," Trunks commented.

"Son Gohan told us that we shouldn´t play around and do this quickly," Goten pointed out. "He said people are getting killed right now."

"I know, I know," Trunks replied. "Then let us end this." Both of them transformed into SSJ.

Their opponents however did something of their own.

xxxxxxx

_Satan City_

Mirai Trunks was levitating motionless in the air, in front of his terrible enemy, a mirror image of himself, who had just easily overpowered Vegeta and Son Gohan at the same time.

18, both of her, were flying in a close distance. The Eighteen of this world had a shocked expression on her face, after seeing who was under The Priest´s mask. The one from Trunk´s timeline looked less concerned and had probably known his identity beforehand.

Piccolo was still busy decimating the ones of Bojack´s soldiers who were still terrorizing the town. After a few moments of hesitation Mirai 18 decided to join him.

xxx

Somewhere close by Mirai 17 was still taking part in the chaos, attacking whoever he wanted and felt like.

While the Z-fighters were easily able to stop the alien soldiers, The Priest was still shielding him and keeping them from interferring with **his** doings. It was just like they had planned.

In the distance he saw Trunks still locked in the confrontation with his other self... and he had to grin.

He had truly wanted to see Trunks face when he found out who was under the mask of The Priest and now he got his wish, even if it was from a few meters away.

But then he turned his attention back to his `entertainment´ all over the town.

Without great care he blasted another one of Bojack´s men who got in his way. They, like their master, were of course only a mean to the end.

By what he saw, his `traitorous´ sister had also eliminated a whole lot of them by now.

Suddenly he saw something on the ground that caught his attention.

Someone had managed to drive a car through the absolute chaos that was the city core and was now racing along the streets, trying to get away from the central area.

Only that the driver gave obviously no thought about anyone else and had already run over several people who were also running for their lives.

"As much as it `hurts´ me to do this to a fellow killer... especially so early in his carrier," he said aloud as he pointed his arm in the direction of the racing vehicle, the grin still on his face.

"But as they say, only the best of us can win a price." He fired a small ki blast and blew the car up. "Another point for me," he whispered.

xxx

Trunks knew his double had mastered the so called `godly ki´. On his current level he had absolutely no chance against him. But he had to do something.

He knew that The Priest didn´t want to kill them. But that only meant that he must have plans for them... especially, as he just admitted, for **him**.

"So Trunks," The Priest addressed him, "as you see everything is going as I had planned it. I know you can´t feel it, but I do... the strain in the structure of this reality. It is getting greater and greater."

"What have you done?"

"A lot, actually. I have made sure that this battle here is more than just a line of fights and mass destruction. It is a imbalance in the universe itself," he stated. "But as long as I would like to spend more time talking to myself. We both know that a confrontation between us would be completely pointless right now. You know there is only one way how you could match me," he said.

He knew, Trunks thought. But that was exactly what he **wanted** from him. From the beginning The Priest had wanted him to get stronger. The question was only, why?

"Tell me," he asked, "what do you want from me? Why are you keeping me and the others alive? I know that it is certainly not out of sentimentallity. If you didn´t thought us useful, you would have killed us all by now."

"Yes you are right. I have actuall already killed more than just one alternate version of us... and others. In fact, I have actually killed one or two Son Gohan´s."

Trunks nearly visibly cringed at the fact that this monster was telling him this so casually.

"I have searched a long time. For a version of us who is worthy... for Seventeen and Eighteen as well, but that is another story

Some of them failed, many others were not even taken into consideration. But you... your potential is the best I have ever found," The Priest explained to him. "You are stronger than all the others I have found, physically and mentally. You have passed all my tests."

"Tests? That was what this was all about?"

"And to your question... What do I want? That is something you will find out very soon. I hope the next time we met you are better prepared," he stated.

They saw that Gohan and Vegeta had just come up again. They were now taking position close to him and 18.

Even Vegeta seemed unsettled by the revelation that this terrible enemy was nobody else than an alternate version of his son. But at least for now, he tried not to show it.

"You know you can not stop me yet," The Priest reminded them. "Maybe you should better concetrate on taking out the soldiers of my ally who are still attacking this place, instead of challenging me, that you are simply not ready for. What do you say `father´," he turned to Vegeta, "should we delay this confrontation to another day?"

The Saiyan Prince said nothing as he met his eyes. But his expression was serious and grim like seldom before... and for once, showed very little of the usual confidence.

"I hate to admit it, but he is right," Gohan told them. "We should deal with the invaders first. They are causing the most damage right now... and we have no chance to stop **him** anyway," he admitted.

"Well, that´s good to know because obviously we will very soon get that chance," Vegeta replied drily. He pointed at the sky and they saw that the two remaining space-ships were coming closer and were now approaching their position.

"It seems Bojack is here," he commented. "We will deal with him quickly... and then we see further."

Above the ship they could seen three blue skinned aliens hanging in the air, looking very similar to the ones who were with The Priest and Mirai Seventeen.

xxxxxxx

_Central City_

Son Goten and Trunks were having problems now... real problems.

Their two opponents had suddenly merged into one being. And while the two young saiyans were stronger than them, even without transforming, this fusion was easily getting the upper hand even against their SSJ forms.

Trunks had just been thrown right through a building.

Son Goten tried to land a punch, but was blocked and send to the ground with an ellbow into his face.

Their opponent was just about to attack them again, as he himself was hit by a kick in the side and send flying into the next housewall.

"17," Trunks recognized the one who had just come to their help.

"It looks like you two could need a hand here," the Android said. "I had just heard what is going on in the news. Alien invasion eh? and the people now know that Mister Satan is a fraud. To that comes that they guy who defeated him looks very much like me.

So I thought maybe I should come to help out a little."

"You," the united Abo-Cado growled as he saw who had just attacked him, recognizing him, "as far as I was told we are allies, right? Why are you suddenly attacking me?"

"Allies?" 17 questioned. "You must mistake me for someone who happens to look like me. I have certainly never seen you before." The Android grinned. "And I doubt that I would ever work with someone who looks as stupid as you."

"You little..." the alien growled, but was nearly instantly silenced by another kick from Seventeen into his stomach.

"Not fair," Trunks claimed. "That is our opponent 17."

"How do we even know if that is our 17 and not the other one?" Son Goten asked.

"If he were that he would not help us and attack this other guy Goten," Trunks reminded him.

"Oh yeah, right," Son Goten replied.

"So you want to fight him by yourself?" 17 stated. "Just like I would have expected from you. Are you sure you can take him?"

"We have a new technique that we could use," Trunks explained. "But it would need a minute or so," he admitted, his voice a bit lower than before.

"Oh I see, you need a bit of time," Seventeen responded. "So I will give it to you."

Just after he said this, he moved and beat down three other enemy soldiers who were close by in less than a second, before he returned to face Abo-Cado once again.

If the merged alien was impressed by the display, he didn´t show it.

"That means you actually want to let the children fight against me?" he stated. "I admit that they are strong... real monsters for their age. Without my special technique I would have certainly lost against them. But like I am now, they have no chance."

"Really? We will see," 17 replied. "By the way, even if you manage to beat them, you still have to deal with me... and then with all the other fighters on this planet and we are all stronger than you can imagine. In fact, the by far greatest energy I can sense under your army would be easily crushed by the weakest of us. Why don´t you do yourself a favor and retreat?"

The alien grinned. This grin however seemed somewhat forced to him and even mixed with some bitterness.

"Retreat? Even if we wanted to retreat, our master would kill any of us who did. Not that I **would** want to. No, I will first crush this two midgets and then I will deal with you." He started to laugh.

"Sounds like a nice guy this master of yours," 17 commented. "I would really like to meet him. But for not, there is you."

The Android and the fused alien were facing each other.

"Whatever you are planning to do kids, do it," Seventeen told them.

"Okay," Trunks replied. "Goten?"

"Yes," his friend answered.

The two began.

They had been working on this technique for some time now. It was as Son Goku had returned from the Afterlife the last time that he had first explained the basics of it to them, as well as to Vegeta and Son Gohan.

It was ironically a technique very similar to the one their current opponents were using... the Fusion. Quite similar to how he had thought it to them in the past. In this timeline however they concentrated more on the magical power-up the old Kaioshin was giving to them.

Vegeta had downright rejected the idea and so Gohan, since the older Trunks was in the time-chamber at that time, lacked a proper partner as Goku showed them the basic moves.

Beside that, thanks to Mirai Trunks knowledge about the other timelines, they already knew the weaknesses of the so called Fusion Dance.

First of the `dance´ you needed to perform for it - beside looking absolutely ridiculous - took a few seconds, in which you were completely vulnerable to attacks. So unless you had someone else around as a distraction or you had an enemy who actually wanted to see you in your fused state, your opponent could easily interfere. An opponent from the caliber of Ne-Me-Sys would most likely blast you before you even had the chance to use the technique.

Second, the dance needed to be performed correctly. One wrong move and the resulting Fusion would end up weaker than both individual fighters... and they would be stuck in this weak form until the time of the merging run out.

Third, there **was** a time limit. Even if successful, the Fusion would only hold for a half hour, in SSJ for only for ten minutes. Then they would have to use the dance all over again, that led back to the first two weaknesses.

And fourth, the resulting fused fighter was in practically every case - at least as far as saiyajins were involved - even more careless and overconfident than the individual ones were. Nearly every time, in the timelines that Trunks had watched, the fused warrior, despite often far stronger than his opponent, somehow let him get away before the time run out. In other words, nearly every time the fused warrior botched it.

All of that made the actual use of the Fusion in combat very limited.

But all of them had still at least learned the principles of the Fusion back then... enough to expand upon it. Even if it was not enough to use the technique effectively.

Goten and Trunks however had kept trying, beside their regular training, which they kept up rigerously and finally succeeded. By now they were able to perform a successful Fusion with most attempts they tried. Just like now.

While 17 was standing in Abo-Cado´s way, Trunks and Goten were moving in synchronisation until they touched each others fingertips and then they merged into one person.

"Hey, thanks for keeping this guy occupied for a moment Seventeen," the just formed Fusion addressed him. "I am Gotenks. I will take over again now."

Abo-Cado starred at what the two had just done. But he then regained his confidence... or maybe he was just lying to himself. He knew how far this two were above his individual components when they were transformed into their `blonde´ state. Now that they were merged as well...?

He could only hope that their fusion technique was less effective than their own. But he knew that was a slight hope. With other words, he was bluffing. But he knew that Bojack would slaughter him anyway if he found out that he retreated, especially from two children.

"So you can do it too?" he called out with false confidence. "Well, lets see what you are capable of kid."

"As you wish," Gotenks answered... and moved to attack.

Trunks and Goten had still been in their SSJ state when they fused. That meant their combined form Gotenks was one as well. The time the Fusion would hold was so much shorter... but the power was far greater than otherwise.

Abo-Cado tried to hold up his bluff by blocking Gotenks first attack. But the punch of the other Fusion easily broke through his defense and hit him sqare in the face.

Once again Abo-Cado was being send flying. This time however his opponent send a powerful ki attack after him that completely annihilated the fused alien.

"Thanks for your help 17," Gotenks said to the Android.

"No problem," he replied.

xxxxxxx

_Satan City_

Bojack was looking down at the Z-fighters, in every sense of the word. He along with the rest of his elite warriors, a.k.a his old gang, was flying in the air above them and The Priest.

He made a gesture with his hand for the two next to him and also for Bido and Zangya who were levitating in some distance.

"I see, so you are the defenders of this planet," he addressed the Z-fighters. "Which one of you is the son of the fighter known as Son Goku? The apprentice of one of the Kais who had imprisoned us all those years ago."

"I am," Gohan replied.

"I see. It will be a special pleasure for me to crush you along with the rest of you," Bojack told him.

"As if you could," Vegeta interjected.

This comment only fueled Bojack´s anger even more.

"You dare to talk to me like that you worm," he called out.

He was already not happy about the way the invasion was going. By the communication they had received from the other ships, the other parts of his forces had met heavy resistance and were forced to stop their advance.

What he didn´t knew was that his troops were not just being stopped, they were being annihilated. The reports he had gotten were in the best case understatements and in the worst outright lies. His officers were just too terrified of him to tell him what was truly going on.

So nearly his entire army was being wiped out while he was standing here and he didn´t even knew it.

xxx

Behind them Mirai 18 and Piccolo were just each destroying another couple of his warriors. Not that he cared much. His officers were simply too afraid of him to tell him how the situation truly was. So nearly his entire army was being wiped out without him even finding out about it.

In his eyes this troops were nothing but cannon fodder, only good to be thrown at the enemy and buy some ground with their lives. The only ones who were of actual use were his original crew and one or two of the others.

Useful, not **needed**, the only thing he did truly need was his own power. That was now even greater than before thanks to his `ally´.

Still an entire battalion being decimated like that by only a woman and some green alien? This was a disgrace.

Weaklings, he thought. It was time to teach a lesson... to **all** of them.

He charged another energy attack. And he aimed directly at Piccolo and Eighteen. But to everyone´s surprise he fired, instead of one or two, an entire barrage of blasts into their direction.

"Look out," Gohan shouted a warning.

While Piccolo and Mirai 18 were easily able to deflect the shots that were meant to hit them, the things around them were not.

Another part of the city was even more devastated than before, buildings, streets, people and also several of his Bojack´s soldiers... blown apart, set on fire and murdered.

The alien warlord only laughed. Behind him his four `elite warriors´ were watching what had just happened with cold expressions. One or two had even smiles on their faces.

"You," Gohan growled at him angrily.

"I see you have arrived Lord Bojack," The Priest addressed his `partner´. "As I promised you, your enemies, everyone on this planet who can be truly dangerous to you, are assembled here."

"Indeed my friend," Bojack replied. "You were very helpful, like always. So this is what you truly look like." His gaze shifted between The Priest and Mirai Trunks. "I am not the only one with a double as it seems. Are you planning as well to...?"

"Now that we are here Lord Bojack," The Priest said, cutting him off, "I have delievered the Z-fighters to you and most of all other remotely strong warriors are also somewhere in this city, easy targets for you, just as we had planned it. When we are finished her, I hope that I can trust you to fullfil your part of the agreement and assist me in my future plans."

"Of course... my friend," the Warlord told him.

Bojack´s eyes met first with Gokua and then with Zangya and Bido.

xxx

Just at that time, three more newcomers appeared right above the battlefield.

This three were the young and the old Kaioshin and the bodyguard Kibito. They had come back to this planet, just as they said they would after finding more information about this enemy.

But the main reason for their current visit was all but positive.

"By the Great Heavens," Kibito said as he looked down at the hell that had once been a peaceful city.

"I understand how you feel Kibito, I truly do," the Kaioshin told him, "but this battle is not the reason we are here. The Z-fighters will deal with it better than we could," he admitted.

"This strange anomaly that we have made out," the older Kaioshin stated, "the source is here... and so is **he**."

* * *

This chapter is a bit shorter than the last ones.

It is probably one of the darkest ones in this story. In part because here, beside superpowered villians, also regular humans are turned into killers as soon as the circumstances for it are `right´.

A similar concept was already followed with the `reapers´ who were introduced in the Mirai timeline. This is also to demonstrate how deeply the actions of the antagonists affected the entire population.

I wanted to thank the readers who leave regulary reviews and especially Raos, who had recommended my story in his own Dragon Ball OT.


	23. Chapter 23: Monsters you don t see

**Chapter 23**

The newly arrived Kaioshins came closer to the point where they sensed the disturbance in time and space that they had noticed recently.

They knew that would also bring them very close to the being known as The Priest.

What they found was worse than they had expected. The entire town had been turned into a warzone.

xxx

Close to the city´s core, they found the group they knew as the Z-fighters confronting the same robed figure they met before.

But what truly caught their attention were the beings standing next to them. It were members of the Race of Hera, they were sure of that, a species that was practically extinct for many centuries. Their was only one small group of them left, but they were meant to be sealed away as the lower Kais had informed them.

But obviously they were not.

"Bojack," the Kaioshin said loud.

They all now turned around to them, the Z-fighters and their opponents alike.

"**Kais**," the alien warlord growled with contempt as he saw the newcomers, recognizing them. His henchmen had equally hateful expressions on their faces.

"You are back," Mirai Trunks called out to them.

"Yes we are," the Kaioshin replied, "but to be honest, we have not found out much new. We are here for another reason. But..." It was in this moment that they saw The Priest´s face. The deity literally felt his own jaw falling down.

"That... that... I knew that the Priest came from another reality but this..." he stammered. His eyes went from The Priest to Trunks and back.

"It doesn´t matter right now," the older Kaioshin stated.

"I hadn´t thought that I would Kaios on this world as well. But that only makes it even better," Bojack announced. "You will be the first to die when I have done my business here... and it will be a painful death. You will pay for what your kind has done to us."

"It is him," the old Kaioshin said, pointing at Bojack, "the anomaly we are searching for."

He was right, his younger kinsman realized. When he looked at the heran, all his senses were literally screaming out at him. The aura that surrounded him was nothing else but bizarre. It was nearly as if he shouldn´t even exist in this universe.

"But how?" he asked. "**You**," his gaze turned to The Priest, "what have you done?"

The Priest looked at him, a light smile was now to see on his face.

"To tell you the whole truth, I had freed the Bojack of the last timeline I visited and brought him with me," he answered. "Then I have merged him with the version of this universe... using a set of your own portara earrings by the way."

If the two Kaioshins and their bodyguard had been shocked before, now they were downright horrified.

"You did **what?**" the younger Kaio screamed. "Are you completely insane?"

"Of course he is," Eighteen murmured, standing some meters away.

Mirai Trunks who had heard her, grinned.

"That is an violation of the natural order of the universe on so many levels. I don´t even want to think about it," the old Kaioshin said. "Goddamnit."

"Is there anything we can do to reverse that?" his younger colleague asked him.

"I am not sure. The portara are designed in a way that it shouldn´t be possible to erase their effect with any regular means."

"You will do nothing you pathetic beings," Bojack shouted, "except die by my hands. Don´t even try to think you could take my new power from me... But first, there is something else I need to take care of," he stated. "Gokua, Bujin... go," he addressed two of his men. "Zangya, Bido, trap him," he told the other two.

Without hesitation, they all reacted. Gokua and Bujin charged forward, while the other two were performing their group´s special technique to zap energy from their opponents.

All of them were moving... **against** The Priest.

"I am sorry `my friend´," Bojack grinned, "but thanks to you, I am now invincible... and I won´t need a `partner´."

Zangya and Bido had surrounded him with their nearly invisible threads, formed from their own ki, that were designed to absorb the energy of their victims.

At the same moment, their two comrades were attempting to kill their `weakened´ target.

But against **this** opponent it all meant nothing.

The Priest made a slight gesture and the threads that were meant to absorb his energy were ripped apart.

Bojack´s fighter Gokua had his sword drawn, ready to decipate his opponent. But The Priest draw his own weapon, in a reaction so fast that the two hearns could only see a blurr and the two blades clashed against each other.

The Priest´s weapon however broke Gokua´s apart with one strike and continued to cut right through the heran swordsmen´s body. His comrades were seeing in shock what happened, while Bojack only watched dispassionately.

The two halves of the dead body were falling to the ground.

Bujin tried to use magic in the fight conjured a number of completely realistical illusions that filled the place around them. But The Priest only released a small bit of his energy and the magical creations vanished. With another movement he used his sword to slice the unlucky alien´s head off.

The entire fight so far had taken less than five seconds... and that only because The Priest was taking it easy. But that were the herans not aware of.

Bojack was still only watching what happened, while his two remaining henchmen were starring in horror.

"What are you waiting for," he told them, "kill him."

Both of them hesitated, knowing it was suicide. But so was disobying their master.

However the decision was taken out of their hands. The Priest himself moved and suddenly appeared right in front of Bojack.

"I admit I have expected you to betray me," he said to him, "but you do it earlier than I thought. And what is this with sending your underlings against me? I didn´t expect you to be a coward either."

"I wanted you to spend at least some of your energy on this weaklings," Bojack responded. "To be honest I had a slight hope that they would take you off guard. But it seems I have overrestimated them," he remarked. "It doesn´t matter." He raised his arm and gathered ki for an attack.

"You have been a great help `my friend´, I admit that. But now there is no longer place for you. This galaxy is mine alone."

"Really?" The Priest replied with a cold smile. Before Bojack could unleash his attack, he grabbed his wrist and crushed his arm under his fist.

All the heran could do now was scream. He was unable to free his mutilated arm from the grip.

"You are a fool," The Priest told him. "Have you really thought I would give you a power that rivals mine? I have used you to spread chaos and fear over this planet. But now, as you have put it `my friend´... there is no longer a place for you."

He raised his other arm and blasted the warlord, completely disintigrating him.

"No, wait," the old Kaioshin shouted, but it was too late.

Everybody around was only watching, the Z-fighters and the Kaioshins unsurprised... the two remaining herans unsurprised as they watched their master, who they had thought invincible, being slaughtered as if he was nothing.

The two Kaioshins looked more than unsettled. They knew that the violent death of this unnatural merged creature would the imbalance that he and his actions have caused even worse. They could literally feel the natural order of things being twisted around.

But there was nothing they could do anyway.

"This only made everything worse," the younger Kaioshin said.

The Priest on the other hand radiated silent satisfaction.

"Now, I think that is everything," he stated. "Seventeen," he said loud, combined with a telepathic message, "it is time for us to leave."

He turned to Zangya and Bido.

"For you two, I think there is a choice," he told them, "you can either decide to follow me like you did it with Bojack. I think I can find use for you... or you can stay and try your luck with these people here, whose planet you have just raided." he he his gaze around. "Or you can follow your masters last orders and attack me... and `join´ him once more."

It took them only a few moments to make up their mind and they took position right next to him.

A second later Mirai 17 arrived.

"I see you are finished here," he remarked.

"Yes... and you, did you have fun?"

"Like I hadn´t in years," Seventeen replied. "But... it seems that my sister betrayed us," he stated.

"I know," he said. "Let us deal with her later. I am sure we can `convince´her to come back to us. But you know I won´t force either of you. You are my allies, not my servants. Now, let us go."

"Wait," Trunks called out, "**you** have caused all this, you are responsible for everything what happened and now you just want to leave?" He had followed their exchange right now and he didn´t buy it, he didn´t believe for a second that Eighteen had truly turned against them.

"Of course," The Priest responded. "I have reached what I wanted for the moment. It is not as if you or anybody else here could stop me. You have grown much my other self. But you are still not ready."

With this words he created a portal close to them, he, Seventeen and the two remaining herans stepped through and they were gone.

The Z-fighters and the Kaioshins were left behind.

"I just can not believe that he is you," Eighteen, the one from this timeline, said to Trunks, the uneasiness still written on her face.

He stepped closer, layed his arms around her and draw her closer to himself.

"It seems that you and Seventeen are not the only ones whose counterparts are monsters," he told her.

"Somehow this shouldn´t really surprise us this much. There are probably also some version of the rest of us. A few of us used to be not the most friendly people anyway," Piccolo reminded them, throwing a side-look at Vegeta, who had been watching the gesture between Trunks and the Android in silence.

"You don´t have to remind me," he replied. "And as far as it comes to me, this guy might be a counterpart of my son, but he has already proved more than once that he won´t hesitate to kill or abuse anyone, family included. So I say we take him down with all we have. After we find a way to get strong enough."

He looked at Tarble after he said this, who just nodded.

"I guess I will have to do some training with you brother," Vegeta stated.

xxx

A few minutes later all of them were standing together once again. The few remaining alien soldiers had either been killed or had surrendered. All in all it were less than a dozen.

Some of them claimed that they only took part in the invasion because they were afraid of their leader. Having seen him in action, the Z-fighters were actually willing to believe that. The Kaioshin had promised that he would deal with them.

And most of them were having an watchful eye on Mirai 18 who was standing under them. Nobody so far truly believed in her sudden `change of heart´.

It was a short time later that the child version of Trunks, Son Goten and Android 17 returned, along with them were three more alien soldiers who had surrendered to them.

They told them that they had together stopped and mostly wiped out the other groups of attackers around the planet.

Seventeen however was surprised to see two versions of his sister here.

"Now tell us," Piccolo asked Mirai 18, "why exactly are you here?"

"Whatever her reasons may be," Tarble mentioned. "I owe her a lot. She has freed me and without her, I would very likely be dead right now."

She hesitated for a few moments with the answer, maybe to find the right words... or maybe to make something up, they thought.

"As you know it was The Priest... or should I rather say Trunks?... who brought me and my brother back from the Afterlife. So we of course accepted his offer to work with him. What should I say, at first it was fun."

Trunks frowned at this. He remembered all too well that her idea of `fun´ meant.

"But then," she continued, "we found out more about what he truly plans. He wants to help this ancient god to return to our world and then... He will devastate the entire universe... and this. It is just too much."

"Why should we believe you?" Mirai Trunks asked her. "I know you 18. You have never cared about what happened to anyone beside you or 17. Other people, thousands or even billions of them, had always only been toys to you."

"It is so hard to imagine that I have changed after being killed by you and spending years in Hell?" she asked him.

"You didn´t seemed very changed the last times we met, when you assisted The Priest with his last mad scheme. To be honest, I don´t believe a single word you are saying."

"You are right," she finally answered. "There is another secret reason for me doing what I did," she admitted.

She walked closer to him and to everyone´s surprise... wrapped one of her arms around his neck and pulled him into a deep kiss.

They all watched this with open mouths. Their 18 was looking more than just a bit irritated about what her double had just done.

17 on the other hand looked like he could barely keep himself from starting to laugh.

Trunks for his part was completely surprised. A small part of him, he had it hard to admit it, actually liked this. Then he came back to his senses and pushed her away.

"What do you...?"

"**What** do you think you are doing?" this timeline´s Eighteen finished the question angrily.

"What does it look like?" she responded. "I am demonstrating my feelings."

"That´s enough," Vegeta cut in. "Again, tell us, why should we keep you around? By what we know you could shoot us in the back anytime. You are a danger to us and our families."

"As I already said, I can tell you much about The Priest and his plans, things you need to know. And beside that, I have already assisted you against Bojack´s army, haven´t I? How many more humans would the one I have defeated have killed? I have already rescued your brother," 18 reminded him.

"How many have died because the ship **you** shot down crashed right into the city?" Mirai Trunks asked her.

"That was an accident?" she replied somewhat defensively.

"Was it? Or did you just not care?" he responded.

She said nothing for a few moments.

"If you decide to trust me or not," she finally said, "I have already told you that it would change nothing if you kill me. The Priest would just bring me back if he wants to."

Trunks already knew this. The Priest had done it before - that was the reason she was standing here - what would keep him from doing it again if 18 was truly still on his side?

"We have ways to keep her under control," Son Gohan offered. "Bulma can build another one of this shut-off switches. She has the complete designs. It wouldn´t take long for her to create another one."

The anger was easily to see on Mirai 18´s face. Even their Eighteen looked slightly offended about this idea, not to mention her brother. But they both didn´t say anything. They probably realized that it was for the best and the lesser evil.

"This woman has a point," the old Kaioshin spoke up, for the first time since their discussion started. "The actions of this Dark Priest has already unbalanced the natural order of this world to the point where it is nearly at the breaking point," he explained.

His expression and posture were stern and very serious, quite unusual to the more than just a bit eccentric old man they knew.

"The damage he had done before were already noticable, but by merging this warlord with his counterpart, letting him run amok and finally killing him, he had brought it nearly to the brink. **One** more action like this and it will be beyond repair. This will not only be disastrous for our home-dimension. The force that our ancestors had locked away all these years ago will have the chance to return... and then our universes will be faced with a terror that makes everything before look like nothing. So if she," he pointed at Mirai 18, "knows **anything** useful, we should give her the chance to tell us."

"Oh, thank you," Mirai 18 replied.

"I am not doing this for you but for the good of the universe," he yelled at her.

"If you say so," Vegeta told him. "But all that only holds water **if** she actually has something to tell us. So if you have something interesting to tell us woman, talk now," he addressed the Android.

"I see. There is actually one interesting detail that I will tell you right now. Namely what he is intending for you Trunks." She looked at him.

He could sense the cold feeling crawling up inside him at her words.

"And what is that?" he asked.

"I am surprised that you have not already figured it out by yourself. The thing with Bojack was a test run after all."

**Now** Trunks was truly feeling cold.

"You mean he...?"

"He is intenting to merge with you into one being... temporally at least... or even forever if he decides that it suits him. Everything he had put you through so far, all these `tests´ he had designed for you and the others, the breach in the Afterlife that allowed the dead to return, your fight against Broly, the confrontations between you and him that he **allowed** to happen... the times he had `spared´ your life, one of the reasons for all that - besides the usual spreading of terror of course - was to get you to grow stronger and form you into the warrior he imagined," she explained.

"Does he truly thinks I will simply fuse with a madman like him?" Trunks growled.

"Who says he is going to leave you a choice? He has many powerful and strange abilities that even I don´t really know anything about. In every case he seems to think that he can either overwhelm or corrupt your current personality."

Trunks didn´t say anything this time. But his uneasiness, no his fear was clearly to see. This time it was Eighteen, their Eighteen who stepped closer and put her arms around him.

"But for his idea to be truly effective there is still one thing missing... "Mirai 18 pointed out, "Godly Ki. He wants to fuse with you, yes... but only after you become a Super Saiyajin God."

The last part caught everyone´s attention once again.

"Fusing two identical beings from different timelines was already dangerous enough," the younger Kaioshin stated. "But merging two identical God Ki Users, even if only for a short time. That would not only unsettle the natural order of things, it would completely destroy it."

"Not to mention the damage that had already been done," the older one added.

"So what keeps me from just **not** becoming a Super Saiyajin God?" Trunks questioned.

"He would just continue with his other attempts," Mirai 18 responded, "like he did here. Without any of you using this so called God Ki, you have no chance at all. And even if you conjure it, your chances are very slim, since **he** had mastered it years ago.

You are not the only way for him to reach what he wants Trunks, just the most effective and the one that could give him the most personal power. So if you don´t do it you are doomed. If you do, you are as well," she stated. "That is at least what I could make out from the things I have heard from him." She shrugged.

Trunks could barely hold himself from growling in helpless frustration. She was right. It was the only hope they had to ever match him at the moment. But it would play right into his hands.

The only other possibility they had was the Super Android Project, but that was far from complete. Maybe it would take them years. And Super Saiyajin 4 was at their current state too dangerous to even consider.

What should they do?

"Okay then, tell us more," Vegeta demanded now. "What else do you know?" he asked 18´s counterpart.

"Sorry, but I won´t tell you anything more until I am sure that you will actually keep me around." She smiled at him.

The Saiyan Prince´s expression wasn´t happy, not that it usually were, but his feelings about her statement were clear.

"I see." That was all what he said.

xxxxxxx

_Capsule Corp_

It was a few hours later. Both Eighteens, along with Mirai Trunks, Seventeen, Vegeta, Son Gohan and Tarble were standing in one of the labs of the CC building.

The younger version of Trunks mother explained the situation to them, the older one standing right behind her. In her hand she was holding a remote controller, nearly identical to the one she had constructed during the fight against Cell years ago. A second one was lying on the table behind her.

"Let me make one thing clear," she said with a glance at Mirai 18, "we are both not happy that we had to interrupt our work for something like this."

The `work´ she was referring to was their attempt at the Super Android Project of Doctor Gero. But so far they hadn´t managed to achieve much anyway.

At the moment they were trying to create additional infinite-energy cores for their Seventeen and Eighteen. But Doctor Gero´s designs were complex and highly sophisticated, even for two of the world´s most skilled scientists. Or maybe better said two versions of **one** of the world´s best scientists.

"As you probably know, this is the controller to shut you down," she said, showing her the one she was holding in her hand.

"The other one," she pointed at the device on the table, "is for your self-destruct mechanism. And before you ask, the ones in 17 and 18 here had been removed years ago. So it won´t be a threat to them, only to **you**. Do you understand that?"

"Of course," Mirai 18 replied. "I am not stupid, you know?"

"Aside from that, at least one person will be with you the entire time, even when you are sleeping," Gohan informed her.

"Oh great," she replied sarcastically.

"To be precise, Seventeen had offered to watch over you, at least for the first week," he clarified.

"I see," she turned to the local version of her brother.

"It seems I will get to know my `other´ sister better. I am looking out to it, even if she is a murderous psychopath." His sarcasm was matching his own. "You could be a bit grateful, you know? I truly have other things to do." He grinned.

Like spending some time with Mari, he thought. He admitted he had truly come to like that human. But there was no way he would mention her in front of his sister´s evil double.

"And lets make one thing clear," Bulma addressed her, "you **will** tell us everything about that creazy version of my son that you know. You don´t need to do it right now. But I expect you to have told us everything by the end of the week. You got that?" she asked her.

Mirai 18 nodded, visible **not** happy.

"Now, would you excuse us? As I said, we have other things to do," she told them. "And keep an eye on her," she said.

"Wow," her older counterpart told her as the others had left the room, "I can barely believe that you have actually been talking to her of all people like that."

Being Bulma, of course she was by far not easily to scare, most of the people she knew would have even called her careless behind her back. But she had spend years under 17´s and 18´s terror.

"You know," her younger self answered, "she is not half as intimidating as Vegeta can be."

Both of them broke out into laughter.

xxxxxxx

"Do you think they bought it?" Mirai 17 asked.

He and The Priest had just returned to the place on another planet they were using as temporally base.

"No, not really," The Priest answered. "They will be distrustful for sure. But they know they need information. And they are too honorable to just take what 18 knows and kill her afterwards... Not to mention that they know it would be pointless since I can bring her back."

"Dieing is still not a very nice experience," the Android commented.

"Remember, your sister has volunteered for this job. Whatever her reasons are."

"Oh, I know her reasons, alright," he remarked with some obvious sarcasm. "Was it really a good idea to let them know about **it**?" he questioned.

"It doesn´t make a difference," The Priest replied. "They know perfectly well if they **don´t** do it they will never be able to defeat me and we will just continue like we did before... and **if** they do..." he let the words hanging in the air.

"In some sense it could even be useful for me," he said. "Whatever they choose, I will win and they **know** it. Imagine how devastating that must be for them. To have an option to become more powerful and still no way out."

"What about this Super Android Transformation you have told us about?" 17 wanted to know.

"It would take them years to realize it. Trust me, we will discover it before them."

"If you say so. I trust you in this matter," the Android answered.

"Yes, you will see it will turn out as planned," The Priest assured him.

He right now had his hood pulled down and he had not replaced the mask, showing his identity openly. Hiding it would not longer be necessary when it came to his opponents.

"Trunks, my precious `other self´," he said, "what do you think," he questioned, "how many more `tests´ must I place upon him? how much pain - what must I take from him? How much... until he becomes **me**?"

xxxxxxx

_A planet in another galaxy, far away from Earth_

_Several days later_

It was on one of the sandy streets at the outskirts of a middle sized settlement. The local population, aside from their grey skin color, the purple hair and the different form of their ears, they literally had none, at least from the outside, was not so different looking from humans.

But the single small gnome like figure who was walking along the street, was clealy not one of the locals. The small being was wearing a clearly aged black coat and had a scarf wrapped around the lower part of his face. On a closer look, his skin was of pinkish color and showed clearly signs of his old age.

Nobody of the people passing by or standing or standing by their houses was paying much attention to him. Why should they? There were many people, coming from different parts of the galaxy on their world, living their lives.

In opposite to the first appearance however, this being was everything but a harmless wanderer. His name was Hoi and the truth was that he was an ancient and very dangerous wizard... the last known member of a race of dangerous wizards. And also the reason he was here was all but harmless.

He was here on this planet because he was searching for something. Just like he had done at countless other places, following one lead after the other. Like he had done it for a thousand years.

Of course that was something nobody of the native race would know about.

But **someone** here knew.

Right now Hoi´s mood was far from the best. But he didn´t let it show. During the last thousand years he had truly honed his acting skills. Another dead end, he thought. He had heard a rumor that led him to believe that what he was looking for could maybe be here. But it turned out to be nothing but a stupid local superstition.

As soon as he found Hildegarn, he promised himself, the first thing he would do was returning here and raze this pathetic planet to the ground. Well, probably after dealing with whatever planet he will find...

"Old man, can I maybe help you?" a voice addressed him. It was the voice of a young woman.

As he turned around, he saw instantly that she clearly wasn´t native on this world as well. She was wearing a brown coat around her shoulders, like is own looking quite a bit worn out. Her skin color was in a dark blue, with a touch of green. She had long orange hair and pointy ears. Beside that, practically all species in known space with at least some humanoid features would describe her as `very attractive´.

"Hello my pretty child, what can I do for you?" he said, putting on the friendly act he had perfectionized in so many years.

She was looking at him in a openly friendly manner, but behind that - just like with himself - was hiding something else.

"My name is Zangya. I have been looking for you. You can leave this out by the way," she told him, "I know who you are."

Hoi´s demeanour suddenly changed, becoming far more aggressive and hostile and a dark aura was showing around him.

"And what do you know?" he asked her.

"Oh, I know who you are... what you and your kind are and what you were intending. I know that you want to unleash a force that could bring down this universe. Don´t worry, I have no intention to stop you. Quite the opposite, what if I could tell you where to find what you are looking for?"

"You can...?" he called out, completelly loosing his posture and that was unusual for him. "... and why should you do this?" he finally asked.

Hoi looked around. He saw that they were alone, except for a male native who was standing at a corner several meters away. Obviously too far to hear what they were talking about. Good.

"You and I have actually some things in common," she said, "like yours, my race is practically extinct... and like you, I couldn´t really care about all the others. So yes, I am willing to help you... under one condition."

"That is?" he wanted to know.

"You are an member of the Kashvar, a race with the agenda to exterminate all others and create an universe that belongs only to you alone. My condition is of course that you put your prejudices aside when it comes to me. Just like I will with you. I have no interest to be killed along with all the others."

"And why would you trust me on this?" Moments later he realized that it had probably been stupid to ask this question. He could have promised her anything and dispose of her later anyway. If she was naive enough to trust him on his word. But he was curious.

As answer she gave him a inviting smile and let her coat fall over her shoulders and revealed the far newer and more suiting clothes she was wearing underneath.

"Are you really saying you wouldn´t have a use for me?" she asked him seductively.

Hoi´s eyes were growing larger for a moment. Involuntarily he could feel his gaze wandering over her body. But he tried not to show his reaction.

"I have many talents that you could find useful," she told him, suddenly her expression changed, became serious like stone. "Let me demonstrate you," she said.

She moved, faster than his eyes could follow. She was in the next moment standing in front of the native who had been standing in some distance to them and broke the man´s neck with a single movement. Then she disintigrated his body with a small portion of ki.

"Now?" she asked him.

"Yes," he said, "very impressive. I guess I **could** use you."

xxx

A few miles away, following Zangya´s and Hoi´s energy signatures, was a robed figure, leaning against a wall.

Soon they would see how Trunks would be faring against one of his old enemies. The one who had helped to turn himself into who he was.

xxxxxxx

Meanwhile on Earth, things were slowly returning to normal. At least for the moment.

* * *

The Bojack/Invasion arc is over. Next follows as already seen here next follows a Hildegarn/Tapion arc. This will also be important because it plays a role in the backstory of Trunks and his counterpart.


	24. Chapter 24: Timeline-01

**Chapter 24**

Three months had passed since the alien invasion that had been terrorizing the planet Earth.

In this time most things had returned to what they had been before. Others had changed forever.

The most prominent one was the fall and disgrace of Mister Satan. Or as some called it, the revelation of the greatest lie in history. It was not simply a hidden truth that came out, Mister Satan had been an icon and role model, a symbol of hope and strength, a hero for nearly the entire world. And then as everything had fallen down into itself, it had shattered the confidence and trust of millions.

Combine that with the devastating alien invasion that took place at the same time and you had a planet those spirit had been at least badly damaged, if not broken. Chaos and destruction had spread over the globe.

The latest estimation of the death toll was at `only´ somewhat over 50.000 people world-wide. Most of them in Satan City, that had recently changed it´s name back to Orange City, the place where the greatest part of the attack was concentrated on.

Ironically this number was actually surprisingly low given what they had been facing. For comparison Cell´s first attack at Gingertown **alone** had cost around 15.000 lives, this seven years ago... every single citizen of the town... and millions more followed.

The last attacks of the mad AI Ne-Me-Sys had at least cost the lives of hundred thousands, also ultimately far more than this one.

Yes, in pure numbers it could have been far worse. But that wasn´t counting the wide-spread damage in several major and key cities, happening at the same time, the world- wide fear, panic and sheer disillusionment of countless people... the loss of trust and the faith in a save world.

Many people had now started to idolize the Z-fighters instead of Mister Satan, especially the long dead Son Goku or the boy who was now known to have defeated Cell. But even they had not managed to keep countless people from dieing. So even they were not unbeatable or infallible as some, as they admitted it now, had once come to think about Mister Satan.

The days when they could tell themselves that they were save and secure because they had an invincible protector were over... and that caused many people to feel fear.

And there was also something else that was different from Cell. This time it was sure that none of the victims would return to live.

The Z-fighters had already... discreetly... informed King Furry that the source that brought all this people back that time was gone... destroyed as they said, by the originators of the last attack.

Not only had Mister Satan fallen as an icon, his life itself was not longer save. There had already been more than one murder attempt on him and he and his daughter had been taken into protective custody by the Royal Secret Service. To that came that he was facing a large number of charges of fraud and dealings under false pretenses, by state and civil courts both.

Mister Satan´s name now was just as much hated as it was once loved. It had practically become a synonym for betrayal.

The damage caused by the invasion was slowly being repaired. To a great part with the help of Capsule Corporation and other companies. Still the events had been a major blow for the people of Earth, as much physicall as mentally.

Beside all that however, there was also another change... one that the people of Earth were not aware of.

As a result of the disturbances in the balance of time and space, Beerus the God of Destruction had awakened.

xxxxxxx

_West City_

Trunks was at the moment busy with one of his `official´ tasks. One of the ones he didn´t particular liked. Not because it was complicated or even dangerous, not that was not the reason.

The job he had to do was watching over Mirai 18, who was still around and had been the entire time. So far she hadn´t caused any actual trouble. That of course didn´t mean that he trusted her in any way.

One of the main reason they even accepted her presence was that she provided them with information about The Priest - his own other self - and his plans.

According to her their enemy intended, aside from his insane plan to merge himself with Trunks, to recruit a powerful group of more allies. Allies that he could find from across various timelines. That of course also meant that they had no way to stop him since they could not find out in which reality he currently was.

She had also told them that The Priest was searching for a way to realize the full potential of her and her brother. Just like they themselves were doing it as well for `their´ Androids.

At this point she had of course long told them all what she knew. But they had agreed to the deal and followed it. So they were keeping their word and tolerated her presence.

If it were just down to him, Trunks admitted he personally would have rather killed her, even if it was pointless. She was right, The Priest had brought her back once, what would keep him from doing it again if she was still on his side or if she switched alliances again?

Not to mention that he would hate it to sink that low and backstab someone like that. Even if it was **her**.

No, he told himself, he would never act like that... **never**. Eighteen, this Eighteen might not deserve mercy, but that didn´t change that they all had given their word to her. They were nobody who made agreements, even with enemies, and then just turned on them when they had what they needed.

Right now the Android was on a shopping tour in the West City Mall... and Trunks was the one whose turn it was to guard her on this day.

A part of him asked himself what he had done to deserve this `punishment´.

He had already accompanied this timeline´s Eighteen to a shopping trip before. Twice actually, even if for the second time he left early because he had something else to take care of.

He admitted when the two versions had something in common than it was **this **here. Both of them were seemingly addicted to shopping.

A least the 18 of this timeline didn´t seemed to want to waste too much of his time during their time together. Especially since she had been in the last months literally been competing with herself over Trunks attention. So he had the inpression that she had cut her shopping short, at least a bit, to not unnerve him too much.

This version her on the other hand didn´t seem to see a reason to hold herself back.

"Now Trunks, how do you like this?" she asked him, showing him some outfit she had just tried on.

"You look great, just as you have been in the one before... and the one before **that**," he told her. "But that doesn´t change anything about you being a psychotic killer... and about me being rather **anywhere** else," he said with a sneer.

"Oh Trunks, you always say such `incredible´ things to me," she purred in return. With a visible grin on her face.

This way it had always been in the last three months, he thought. Whenever they met, she would sooner or later get flirtatious. Making comments, sometimes she was literally throwing herself at him.

If Trunks was honest, he wasn´t sure what to make out of this. For as long as he could remember, he had been nothing to her but a toy to push around and torment for her amusement... or a target for her anger whenever it suited her. Why was she suddenly interested in him? Had him finally surpassing and killing them really impressed her **that** much? And then, what kind of person would develope feelings for someone after something like this? Well, 18 obviously.

She wasn´t like that with anyone else who had the turn to watch over her. 17 for examply actually claimed that it was amusing to have her around and sometimes made comparisons between her and his `real´ sister. But that was Seventeen.

That was another one of the `drawbacks´ of having her here. There was always someone to be assigned to have an eye on her. Not that it even seemed to be necessary. During the last months she had not even tried to harm a single person. But between appearance and how things truly were, was often a big difference. He knew that all too well.

"It is nice to know that I amuse you," Trunks responded.

"Trunks, you should really learn to relax a bit," she told him. "I may be a mass murderer, but you have to admit... I am hot. Just like **her**, right? Or you could say exactly like her."

Trunks didn´t bother to answer her question and turned his look away from her.

"But I know you better than her," she stated. "I am actually from the same world as you. I have been fighting you for many years... and you are a saiyajin, you of all people know how one gets to know each other during a fight."

"Stop it," he said. "Yes, I do know you... and that is the problem. You are the reason our world became a living hell. **You** are the reason I can not relax. My entire life, since I was a baby, I had been living under your terror. I always had to fear that people I know would die. Or that it would be **me** who would not see the next day. That you would decide to come and destroy my home-town on a whim. Kill my mother and Son Go..." He could not bring himself to end this sentence.

"... And now you are standing here with me and flirting as if all that doesn´t longer matter."

"Yes, that is all true," she admitted. "But I have changed my ways. I am trying to help you. You of all people should understand that. At least given who your father is..."

"Don´t bring up my father," Trunks growled.

"Why? Because it proves I am right? He had done **worse** than me... even if you count the things I did after my resurrection and you know it. How can you condamn me **and** be proud to be his son?"

Trunks forced down his anger. Despite everything he had to admit she brought up a valid point, technically at least.

"Yes, but you are overseeing one point in your argument," he told her.

"And that is?"

"I don´t believe for a moment that you are truly trying to change. I still think that it is all a deception... one of your insane games that you like to play so much."

"Oh Trunks, you are so mean to me." She actually seemed to be pouting. "What can I do to convince you?" she replied.

"Right now," he said, "there is nothing."

"Too bad."

Of course Trunks was right, she thought. All this here was only a planned out charade. Of course beside that, she also had her completely own motivations for being here and subjugating herself to this.

She admitted she herself wasn´t quite sure what had caused this strange fascination with Trunks that she had developed in the months since her revival. Or maybe... and that was something else she had to admit, maybe she did have this interest already, but before her death and her time in Hell she had just been too arrogant to see it.

Anyway, this plan here got her the perfect chance to get closer to the matter.

Mirai 18 remembered the time a few months back.

xxx

_Bojack´s fleet, 2 days before the invasion of Earth_

They were standing close to each other in one of the quarters of Bojack´s flagship, she and the version of Trunks who was calling himself The Priest. In the moment he wasn´t wearing his cloak or mask, which made him look, 18 had to say, very similar to the Trunks she knew.

"So, only to make that clear... it is your wish to go?" he clarified.

"Yes it is," she stated. "I have to admit, I was **more** than surprised as I found out who you truly are... **Trunks**." She addressed him by his given name, for the first time.

"You know, I have developed quite an interest in your other self... and now I have found out that you and him are the same person, well..." She reached out her hand and let one of her fingers glide over his cheek.

"I believe you should spare this for my other self. Don´t you think so 18?" The Priest replied with no visible emotion.

"You are no fun," she said with a grin.

"Oh, I assure you, I am very much `fun´," he responded. "But not right now," he stated. "We have both other things to take care of as you know. And by the way, you admit it yourself, it is `he´ you are truly interested in, right? But of course if everything should work out perfectly and he and I will merge into one person, I am sure **we** will gladly take you on your offer," he said. "You should return now. You remember the entire plan, right?"

"Of course I do," she replied. "I have to say, you have a really fine sense of humor. You set up Bojack and his men to kill the people of Earth... and then you send **me** to kill them. That is funny. It is something I would not have expected from `Trunks´. No matter which version. But as you said, we should make our preparations for the plan."

The Priest was looking after her as she left, his expression unreadable.

xxx

"You have talked to him?" Seventeen, who she had met a short time later asked her.

"Yes," she answered.

"And he agreed to it."

"Yes."

"Sis you are crazy, even by our standards," he stated. "You realize you will be surrounded by enemies."

"They won´t kill me. They know it is pointless. And you know, maybe I will get a chance to take a look at whatever **they** are planning to bring us to our full power."

"Better be careful," he reminded her. "They won´t exactly let this information lying around unguarded."

"You don´t have to tell me that," she responded.

"But you are right. If we could find out this secret sooner. You know we are playing along for the moment," he said, looking at her sternly. "Our `friend´ had offered us ways to realize our true potential, the one Doctor Gero had **kept** from us." Anger was vibrating in his voice. "So far he had done everything to keep his promise.

But you know as well as me... afterwards there will no longer be a place for him. **We** will be the strongest in the universe... we alone. As it **should** have been the whole time.

But maybe we can keep `our´ Trunks around," he offered her, "when he is back where he belongs, under our boot."

xxxxxxx

Three months later in West City, Mirai Trunks and 18 had just ended their, on Trunks side not quite voluntary, shopping trip.

Meanwhile her brother and their ally, Trunks alternate self, were somewhere else, taking care of other business.

xxxxxxx

_**Another timeline,** the planet Earth - 9 years after the first appearance of the Androids  
_

The Priest and his momentary `partner´ Android 17 were standing on an open field, not far away from the West City of this timeline.

During the last months The Priest had boosted both his energy and physical strength and his mystical powers even more. It was something that might be needed when he will face his other self and possible Vegeta and Son Gohan as well, as Super Saiyajin Gods. To that came that there was a chance that other deities like Beerus and Whiz might also try to interfere.

But soon he wouldn´t even have to worry about them anymore.

Behind them was standing a group consisting of most of the Z-fighters of this timeline.

In front of them were lying all seven Dragon Balls.

The Priest had switched his usual black robe against regular clothes. Right now there was nothing to see of his sinister true nature. To them, he was simply Trunks.

The reason for that was simply. He had contacted the Bulma and Vegeta of this timeline a short time ago and asked her for the dragon-radar. For them he was nothing but another time-traveling version of their son and so they saw no reason not to give it to them.

It was not as if he was the first one they had met.

This particular timeline here was actually one of the ones were Trunks appeared in the past three years before the arrival of the Androids, to give Son Goku his warning, Cell however not.

Logically that meant his alternate self who had visited this world before, would have after returning to his own timeline been killed by Cell, who then stole his time-machine and traveled back in his place, creating yet another past.

It also meant logically that the Trunks they had known had never returned... for obvious reasons.

That was one reason more he had been welcomed with open arms. Still he didn´t pretend to be the same Trunks they had met before. It was too much of a risk. One wrong word and the charade would have been over.

And it wasn´t necessary anyway. They trusted him just for being Trunks. They even helped him collecting the Dragon Balls with their own hands.

He pretended to have no idea what had happened to his long lost counterpart who had visited them before and made it clear that he was a `completely different´ Trunks.

It was also not particular suspicious to them that he had a version of Android 17 with him.

Their own relationship to the Androids was far better now than it had been in the beginning.

xxxxxxx

_History of Timeline- 01 (timeline without Cell)_

Nine years ago, Seventeen and Eighteen had, right after their activation to fight off the Z-fighters, killed Doctor Gero and along with Android Sixteen, begun their hunt for Son Goku. And in opposite to some other worlds, since Cell had never appeared, they had never been interrupted.

Ironically it was mostly thanks to Android 17 intentionally dragging the search out that Goku had not been caught by them while he was still recovering from the heart virus that had killed him in another future.

As he finally had recovered several days later and had spend a few more days to get himself back into top-form, he finally confronted the Androids, along with Vegeta, Trunks, Piccolo and Tien Shinhan and Krillin. They all hoped that this confrontation would end different than the last. They were wrong.

It was a similar crushing defeat. Goku himself barely got away with his life. But not before giving the Androids a challenge that he will come back and fight them again after he trained.

It was a challenge that they... or at least 17, gladly accepted. But that didn´t kept them from still hunting for him.

In the next weeks Son Goku had done his best to stay out of the way of the Androids. Thanks to his Instant Transmission technique he could evade them whenever they came too close.

During that time however he and the other Z-fighters also begann to realize one thing, Trunks dark prophecy had not become true... not really. While the Androids had indeed appeared, they had never made a move to attack towns or the civilian population of the planet, only the Z-fighters themselves. Or better said they were after Son Goku.

They had spared the other Z-fighters twice so far. During the last fight, just like the first one, they had left the others behind beaten up and wounded but alive. Twice now.

No, the Androids, this Androids of their timeline, were not so much a threat to the entire world... no, it was between Son Goku and them. That was at least exactly the conclusion Goku had come to.

On the other side however the three Androids had actually not quite unsimilar thoughts. Out of them, 17 had actually been the first to admit that without Goku to hunt for, they had no real other goal in their lives. That was also the real reason why he went on the search for him as slow as possible.

It was a perception that the other two Androids slowly came to share as well. While 18 had in the beginning bee all for finding Goku as quickly as possible... and constantly complaining when 17 slowed them down, she slowly started to ask herself the question, and what then? Even 16, with the programming to kill Goku hardwired into his head, knew perfectly well that without Goku as a target, his entire existence would be pointless.

That way or another, the Z-fighters soon had to deal with other problems. Another group of Androids appeared an this ones had no second thoughts about attacking civilians. They ambushed Goku right in the middle of West City, before he was able to lead them away from the town.

Thirteen, Fourteen and Fifteen as they called themselves claimed to have been activated by Doctor Gero´s computer that was still active. This too was something The Priest could have told them more about if they asked him... or if he had any intention to tell them.

After a hard fight they managed to defeat this three Androids. While 14 and 15 fell quickly, 13 turned out to be an opponent who brought them to their limits and could have ended them. Mostly because it turned out that he was able to absorb the power-cores of the other two models and use them to transform into a new and stronger form.

Son Goku was finally able to overcome their opponent. But only with an improvised and so far unique move - by absorbing his own Genkidama, that gave him temporally an incredible boost in energy.

But that was only for this one time. Shortly afterwards Trunks decided to return to the future to take care of things there.

xxx

Like the others he came to realize that **this** Androids, while incredible powerful, were mostly only a threat to Goku, but left the general population alone. And in his mind the Androids who were killing innocent people had clearly priority over the ones who were not really harming anyone. So he returned to the future.

He had by now gotten strong enough that he thought he could at least hope to match the Androids of his timeline... and beside that he had also another `weapon´ with him, a copy of the off-switch Doctor Gero possessed. After their fight with 13, 14 and 15, they had decided to search for the computer they had been talking about and with the help of Uranai Baba, finally found them. Or better said they found three different computers inside secret underground labs on different places on the globe.

They first examined and then destroyed all three installations. In one of them, that was ironically located in a hidden basement right under the lab where Doctor Gero had been killed months earlier, they also found blue-prints of the Androids, that allowed them to build the new shut-off switch.

Trunks travelled back to his own time confidently. Beside his own strength, he also had the device with him to shut the Androids down. He promised them that, as soon as he had taken care of the 17 and 18 of his timeline and his time-machine was reloaded, he would return to assist them against the past time Androids.

But he never came back...

xxx

It was nearly one year later as the final battle between Goku and his friends and the first group of Androids came. It had been one year of avoiding each other and constant training at the same time.

Neither Son Goku or Android 17 were in a particular hurry for this confrontation... by far not. The truth was they both enjoyed the suspension... the waiting for the coming battle and the preparation for it.

As this battle finally came, it ended pretty much in a standstill. Goku and the other Z-fighters had improved drastically during this year. He and Vegeta had raised the powers of their SSJ transformations significantly and Son Gohan had learned to transform too. The others had become a great deal stronger as well, especially Piccolo. They were nearly able to match the Androids, but only nearly. Their greater number however made up for that.

Another thing that became painfully clear to them, as some of them had already suspected before, was that 16 was indeed stronger than the other two Androids... at least than they had been in the beginning. By now 17 and 18, who as it turned out could get stronger thanks to their mostly organic nature, had nearly caught up to him.

All that made the fight only harder for the Z-fighters. But they as well had improved dramatically during this last years.

Finally it ended with 16 being heavily damaged and 18 injured on the one side, but all of the Z-fighters exhausted and most of them wounded as well. All of them were barely able to stand on their legs as the fight ended.

Son Goku and 17 were the last ones still fighting. It was an exchange that the saiyajin was slowly but surely, loosing.

In one last attempt he tried to copy his move from one year before, by gathering energy and absorbing it into himself. But this time it backfired horrible.

This time the absorbed energy turned out to stressful for his already damaged body and he was left unable to even move.

17 was standing over him, not looking much better than his opponent, and preparing a ki blast in his hand, ready to send out the killing strike.

Son Goku was looking up to him, painfully since his entire body hurt... and he only said to words:

_"You win."_ Then he started to laugh.

To everyone´s surprise 17 begann to fall in to the laughter... and expunged the ki blast.

In the following days, things were changing drastically. Seventeen and Eighteen actually offered the wounded Z-fighters zenshu beans and took some as well, that were able to heal their organic components.

16 was being repaired by Capsule Corporation, where he himself had asked to have the programming that forced him to go after Son Goku erased and replaced.

And while Son Goku, Vegeta and 17 and 18 promised to fight again in the future, they all agreed that the times of actually trying to kill each other were over. Even on Vegeta´s part a bit reluctantly.

That was 8 years ago.

xxx

In the time that followed they all continued to train and Son Goku, followed a short time later by Vegeta, reached the second SSJ level.

Two years ago then the Wizard Babidi had appeared for his attempt to revive the Demon Buu. But he and his followers were defeated before he was able to free the monster.

For the rest of the time there had been peace on this planet till now.

xxxxxxx

As The Priest and Mirai 17 arrived here and asked for the Dragon Balls, the local version of Bulma and the Z-fighters didn´t hesitate a moment to offer them their help.

His `father´ Vegeta had of course asked him why he couldn´t feel his ki... and he had actually told them about the SSJ God transformation. It was not as if he had any real reason not to.

The saiyajins of this timeline here gaining God Ki would hardly be a threat for his plans. He had no intention to ever return to this world after all after he was done.

It might actually contribute to them, even if on a very small scale. After all having more God Ki users around could like upset the status quo, cause fights and spread the chaos that he needed. Or maybe not. It was impossible to say.

What none of them realized was that, ever since he had arrived here, he had been unleashing his own energy in a very destructive manner. His ki was causing small fractures, barely noticable damage to the structure of time and space of this universe. Just like he had done it in all other realities he had visited.

But since they couldn´t sense his ki in the first place, the others had of course no idea about this.

In their mind he was only another version of their `good friend´ and in two cases son, Trunks.

"You have collected all seven Dragon Balls," they heard Shenlong´s voice roaring. "Tell me, what is your wish?"

"Shenlong," The Priest responded, "I have just one simple wish. I want the ability to free the hero Tapion and his brother from their confinement. Give me a device that allows me to set them free. One that I can take back to the timeline I came from."

The Dragon actually seemed to hesitate for a short moment. Maybe he sensed that something was amiss... maybe. Or maybe he just liked to be dramatic.

Less than a second later a small object fell on the ground before his feet. It had more or less the form of a key.

"Here," Shenlong told them, "this magical key contains a small part of my power. It will be enough to free both of them from whatever magical imprisonment helds them. But be careful, you can only use it twice. Then it´s power will run out."

"Thanks you Shenlong, it will be enough," The Priest replied.

He remembered how he had once seen a similar key, back in his own birth-timeline, created by Pollunga on New Namek as far as he had been told.

If the others around them had actually been aware however what **he** truly intended to use it for, they would have fought him with tooth and nail... and lost of course.

But that was needless. They all trusted him, just for being a version of the boy they knew.

"Tell me, do you have another wish?" the Dragon asked them.

Since in this timeline, like in the last he had visited, the Namekian Dende had upgraded the Dragon Balls from Kami, there were now at least two wishes.

For a moment The Priest was tempted to make another one for himself. One that would benefit his own goals, like bringing back old opponents or wishing for something that would throw the world into chaos.

But was that truly worth the effort? He had what he wanted.

And beside that, the dragon seemed... well, a bit reluctant the last time he tried. So he wasn´t sure if the legend of Shenlong being completely impartial was really true.

No, for now he would just take what he had and leave. And beside that, them knowing about the Super Saiyajin God transformation would most likely lead to a confrontation with Beerus sooner or later. So thing had already been made `more interesting´ in this timeline.

"Thank you `mother´," he said to Bulma, "with **this** I will be able to free Tapion and end the threat for my timeline."

"I still say you should have tried to fight this opponent by yourself," Vegeta grumbled.

"Believe me father, I intend to do that," The Priest replied. "It will be me who will be fighting this beast." He spoke the truth... in a certain way. "But Tapion knows more about this creature than I ever will. His advice will be indispensable."

"If you say so. You know more about what is going on in your timeline than we do," he responded.

"Trust me father, I know what I am doing. Thank you... to all of you," he said `warmly´.

"You truly don´t want to stay for longer?" Bulma asked him.

"No mother," he replied, "me and 17 will stay for the evening. But then we should leave. The people in our world need us. We have a battle to plan and fight after all," The Priest told them.

"That is too bad. We were all really happy to see you again. Even if it is not truly you," Gohan told him. "You know what I mean?"

"Yes, I know," The Priest smiled at him.

xxx

The Priest and Mirai Seventeen had just left the last timeline, minutes ago. They had for the moment returned to their base... at least for now.

"So why have we not just killed them all? It would have been easy," 17 asked.

"To tell you the truth..." The Priest replied, "I wasn´t in the mood for it. And by the way, what would have been the point? They were so far behind us in power that it would not even have been a challenge."

"Maybe you are right," Seventeen admitted. "Or could it be that deep down you are getting sentimental?" he asked him... his sarcasm obvious.

"See it from this angle, now that we have told them about the God transformation, they will surely sooner or later get the attention of Beerus. Don´t you think **that** will make things far more interesting in that timeline?

Maybe we should take a look at this world a few years later, to see how things will turn out, what do you think?" He started to laugh.

He however also sensed something else, a powerful godly ki that had awakened, far away. He realized what it had to be, Beerus.


	25. Chapter 25: The Priest s Crusade

**Chapter 25**

_A short time later - another time and place_

It was only a short time later that both The Priest and Mirai 17 were on yet another journey.

This time however it wasn´t another timeline. They were back in the white space where 17 and 18 had one trained before, shortly after they had met their ally for the first time.

But this time they were not here for training. They were here because The Priest was searching for something... for **someone**.

"Who exactly are we looking for in this place again?" 17 asked him.

"Who we are looking for?" The Priest repeated the question. "Someone I have been interested in for a long time. He is a demon from long ago. Not quite as long as my master has been gone from this world, but about half of it. Still a long time, right?" he asked the rhetorical question.

"I had first heard of this being from my mentor years ago, before he... passed on. He would be a powerful and useful ally, for the next phase of my plan. **If** I can convince him... and that won´t be easy."

"Wouldn´t this guy be foolish to try to defy you?" the Android questioned.

"He could actually do it... since his power rivals my own," The Priest stated.

This took Seventeen by surprise... and he wasn´t sure if he liked it. Another being as powerful as The Priest... another rival... another problem for later, he thought.

"If that´s the case, what makes you think you can get him to cooperate?" 17 wanted to know.

"We will just have to be pollite and persuative and convince him that it is in his own best interest," The Priest responded.

"Of course," Seventeen replied sardonically. "And this guy is out here because?" he asked.

"Oh, he is not technically out here per ce. But from this place it will be easier to reach him. The place where he is now is beyond even this dimension here... a gap in time and space. He was trapped there over 75 million years ago... imprisoned by one of the Kais."

"Don´t worry 17," he said, "even if he decided to not longer cooperate sooner or later, **we** will be able to keep him under control... if we work together at least. I can trust you, right my friend?"

"Of course you can," the Android replied. "What do you expect of me? I am not like Doctor Gero... or Bojack. If you treat me and 18 with respect, we won´t betray you." He told this lie without a single feature out of place.

"That is good to hear," The Priest answered. "You should know something. I have finally discovered a way to bring out all your potential power."

"So you have found it," Seventeen stated.

"Yes and at the next step of our journey we will retrieve it for you. Soon you will be even stronger than me... and then I expect you to assist me in my plans for Trunks."

"Trust me, I will," 17 replied, intending to kill him as soon as he had this new power.

"Good, then let us beginn this part," The Priest said. He started to unleash his energy, right here into the neverending void.

"And what now?" 17 asked.

"Wait. The place where he is sealed is deep in the void between dimensions, hard to reach and also hard to find.

The Priest reached out with his energy an parallel to that he send out a mental call into the nothingness. After a few more minutes... he was being answered.

_"Who...?" _he heard the mental voice calling out,_ "who is calling for me?"_

_"That is a good question? Who is even be able to reach you in your prison?" _The Priest returned the question. _"The answer is I am an agent of the being known as The Nameless God... and Oh `Great Demon Lord´ I bring you an offer for an alliance."_

For a few moments he was only answered by silence. Of course `moments´ were something that could only hard to be measured here, since both of them were at places where the usual concept of time and space didn´t apply.

_"Ah... he, who was a legend even in my time... a symbol of terror even for the Gods... As I suspect you are the cause of the fractures in time and space I have felt." _

_"I am indeed," The Priest answered. "All I do is doing the work of my master__ and preparing his return." He mentally send this explanation out into the void. _

_"An alliance you say?..." the voice he was talking to questioned. "Since you are **`his´** herald I might actually even consider it... But know this, I am not simply a Demon Lord... I am a Demon **God**... an I expect to be treated as such, even by the likes of you."  
_

_"I see... **my Lord**__," The Priest replied. "When my master finally returns to our realities.__ I offer you to be a part of it."_

_"Interesting... interesting," the voice answered, "it just happens that I have my own plans for this dimensions." _

_"Oh, I know that, I have watched them. Just like you have watched many different universes from inside your prison."_

**_"What?" _**_Now even the mysterious being sounded surprised._**_  
_**

A barely visible smile formed on The Priest´s face.

_"I have seen your plans, because I have seen your future. Do you think you are the only one who can watch different timelines? I have seen it all playing out. I have watched your **defeat**... your end," he said. _

_"**No**... that is impossible... You are lying," the voice now shouted back. He was sounding shocked, nearly desperate actually.  
_

_"Allow me to show you my memories of the events I have watched My Lord," The Priest stated. _

_What followed was another telepathic message. This time filled with all the information about this particular timeline he had once observed.  
_

_The being inside his supernatural cage saw how his plans came to fruition, how he was finally freen... and then how everything begann to fall apart, how he was defeated, his own destruction._

For the next moments, there followed nothing but silence.

_"What you saw is what will happen to you when things continue as they did. Technically it already **did** happen. I already watched the events of that timeline unfold._

_You are unique under the creatures of our universes My Lord. Trapped in a void of time and space, so many millions of years ago, there is no alternate counterpart of you left anymore in all these realities, as you are aware of. But since I contacted you **before** these events happened, we can now create a new alternative timeline for yourself._

_Since you are informed about your defeat and you destruction beforehand, you can prevent them."_

_"Yes," the voice answered._

_"You could consider my offer. If you were defeated in the last timeline, having allies this time might help. You can still reach what you really wanted. When my master returns and is reforming these universes in his image, he will have need of an overseer over this worlds... and overlord over this cluster of dimensions. This could be you._

_You would still be master of all that exists in our worlds. You would just have to act in his name."_

_"Oh reall? and what about **you** Dark Priest? Won´t the `faithfull´ servant want this precious position for himself?" the being questioned. _

_"No..." The Priest replied, "I admit I have no interest in these worlds. Not anymore," he said, old bitterness was mirored in his words. "The master gave me the promise to something different. He will being me to **other** dimensions, different planes of existence... away from here, where I will be able to continue his work." Away from the worthless and pathetic creatures of this universe, he thought._

_The trapped being actually seemed to consider his offer._

_"It... seems to be acceptable," he finally answered. "I will accept... for now at least. Free me if you are capable of it."_

"As you wish," The Priest stated, back in the `real´ world. His own powers had already started to open a gateway between the dimensions.

Next to him still stood a very impatiant Mirai Android 17.

He was now taking out the key that Shenlong gave him and added his powers to his own, removing the magical concealment around the Dimensional gap. A useful tool, he thought.

Very likely his own powers would have been enough, but he didn´t want to exhaust himself that much.

He saw a hand coming out of the dimensional gateway before them, that he instantly grabbed with his own... and pulled the being forward.

Seconds later a tall pare bluesh skinned humanoid being with bright red hair was lying in front of them on the ground.

The stranger was looking around, free after all this thousands millennia. He then seemed to realize his inelegant position, lying on the floor and stood up again.

"Welcome back, Demon God Demigra," The Priest greeted him.

xxxxxxx

_West City, Earth... a few days later  
_

After spending the greatest part of the last day with Mirai 18, Trunks was spending today far less stressful.

He was training... the entire day.

During the last months he had improved even more than before. He could now hold his SSJ3 form for around forty minutes and the transformation itself had grown stronger as well.

But he knew against their opponent it still not nearly enough. Not enough? Who was he kidding? It didn´t even made a damn difference.

They needed more power... far more, to even have a chance. He knew their options. The Super Saiyajin God transformation, it was their best chance. At least with the Super Android research still so far from being completed. But even that chance was slim.

The Priest himself had mastered the God Ki years ago, Trunks knew that. If **one** of them transformed he would clearly still be far behind him in power. Even with two it was more than unsure.

He remembered Beerus, the God of Destruction from Ne-Me-Sys recordings. That was what a experienced God Ki user was capable of. The Priest, they had to expect should be in a similar general area of power.

Only if all three of them became SSJ Gods they would have a save chance to take him down... But that was exactly what he wanted in the first place.

That was their dilemma. Their best chance, he knew, was probably on for his father and Son Gohan to become God Ki users and hope for the best. But every single saiyan instinct inside of him screamed against just leaving the battle to the others. Beside that, as they had come to know him, The Priest had probably planned for this possibility as well.

Still, unless through some wonder they got their hands on a way to realize 17 and 18´s full potential instantly or a way to reach SSJ4 without the overly risk of the Golden Oozaru destroying the planet in the process, this was all they could do.

But that meant that their enemy had them outmanouvered. No, he could not simply accept this. There had to be something else... anything they could do.

Should he take the risk and try to teach his father and Son Gohan SSJ4?

They would most likely devastate the world even before The Priest and his allies could do it, in the uncontrolled golden ape form. Even ignoring the risk, simply reaching the fourth level would not give them nearly enough power.

He knew it would be pointless. The SSJ4 of the other timeline had been incredible powerful. But **that** Son Goku and Vegeta had already been SSJ Gods years earlier and integrated the God Ki into their regular one. They had been so powerful that they could crush opponents like Broly or Majin Buu without even transforming.

But that timeline was... Moment, maybe there was something. Trunks thought he was getting an idea.

The Priest was incredible powerful, intelligent and deadly, yes... but he was not invincible... and soon they would proof that.

xxxxxxx

At yet another place on the planet Earth, miles away from any larger town, two other beings were on their way to their target. Both of them had arrived only recently on the planet Earth. One of them though had been here before... even if it had just been for a short time.

The Wizard named Hoi was looking for the remaining part of the creature he and his kind had lost so long ago. But with the help of his new `partner´ he had already find the first piece. But that didn´t mean he trusted her, by far not.

He wasn´t stupid.

All what she had truly told him about her knowledge was that her old masters had done intense research on the whereabouts of Hildegarn. But Hoi himself had been searching in the same way for a thousand years now. So how had this `masters´ been able to find this information so quickly if he hadn´t in all that time? And where were they now? This woman Zangya had told him that they were `not longer around´. But he wasn´t so sure about that.

He was a masterful liar himself and he knew when he was played with. It would probably be better to get her out of the way as soon as she gave him what he needed. When Hildegarn reawakened, he would be his to control and his alone, as it should be. After all he was the last of his kind... the sole inheritor of their legacy.

At least the information she had given him had proven correct. Hildegarn was close by, he could feel it.

She had already led him to Hildegarn´s lower half that was sealed away along with Tapion´s younger brother. The location was actually one of the ones he had already considered himself. But her help was still useful in cutting down the time he needed significantly. And she was even so helpful to get rid of the boy personally.

Yet there remained an greater problem. While his power had been enough to free the younger brother and the lower half of the body, Hoi was aware that Tapion himself and the upper half, the one that was more important, were guarded by a far stronger magical seal. One that he probably wouldn´t be able to remove by his own power.

Originally he had planned to use that Dragon Balls for this task.

But also here his new friend had offered an solution. She claimed that one of her contacts would be able to get his hands on a magical object that would be strong enough to remove every barrier. That actually made him only more suspicious of her.

How in the world did she get something like that? It was more than likely that this masters of her, whoever they were, were not quite out of the picture as the woman was claiming... and propably only waiting for their chance to use Hildegarn for their own purposes. But Hildegarn was **his** and his alone, a power that belonged only to him.

Still, as long as her information was correct... as long as she delivered what she promised, he would certainly not complain. But now her usefulness was quickly coming to an end.

And now she had revealed to him the planet where the **upper** half of Hildegarn´s body was hidden... Earth. Yes, finally after all this centuries he would be free and complete again. His first order after his release would be to kill Zangya.

It will be a honor for her to be the first to die by the hands of the strongest being in al creation after such a long time. Even if she possibly won´t be able to appreciate that honor, Hoi grinned.

They had just reached the edge of a narrow but wide ranged mountainside that stretched out to the horizon on both sides.

"It is here," Zangya said to him. She pointed downwards.

"You are right," Hoi responded, "I can sense his presence." He was of course not talking about the so called hero Tapion, but about the creature who was inside him.

"If you allow me?" she stated and begann to form a ki blast in her hand at the same time.

"Oh, of course my dear," he replied.

At his word she fired downwards, blasting apart the rock formation and digging a hole into the ground.

Hoi knew the chance of this here actually harming Hildegarn was nonexistent. Sadly it would also not damage the magical sealed music-box he and Tapion were trapped in. As the dust had cleared and they were taking a look over the rubble, he saw it.

Just like the other one. An ancient music box from the planet Konat... Hildegarn´s and Tapion´s prison... finally. It was all in his hands now. Now he only needed to free them.

"So I guess this was it," Zangya commented. "Here," she handed him the magical key, the same one that The Priest had been given by the alternate Shenlong, only a week before. "Just point it at the magical barrier you want to break and a mental command from you will activate it," she pointed out. "Well, it seems my job here is done," she claimed.

She lifted off the ground. "Goodbye Hoi, I wish you good luck." That was all she said before she just turned around and flew away.

"Hey wait, where do you think you are going?" he yelled after her confused.

She actually just flew off and left, he thought... the woman who had helped him find Hildegarn... the one he had been planning to kill as soon as he would be free. Was it this? Had she figured out his intentions?

It didn´t matter. All what was important was Hildegarn. He only hoped that the last promise she made would also hold true and that this key would work just as she had said.

Hoi pointed the object at the magical sealed music-box, where both Tapion and Hildegarn were trapped... and like she told him, gave a mental order.

Much to his joy he heard a few moments later that the music-box had begun to play.

xxxxxxx

_And yet another timeline... alternate GT universe_

A portal was opened... between the world of the living and the Afterlife.

The Android known as Neo Seventeen... or sometimes just as Hellfighter 17... stepped foot on Earth.

As it was originally planned, he should have been accompanied by his two masters Doctor Gero and Doctor Muy. But back in Hell things had gotten out of control. When they faced the saiyan Son Goku there, with the intention to trap him in the Afterlife, he had reacted faster than they had expected. Son Goku had kept Hellfighter´s masters from leaving and forced them the stay behind in Hell with him.

That meant Hellfighter was now on his own. The loss of his masters was regrettable. Maybe he would later device a plan to free them from Hell by himself. But for now it didn´t matter. His instructions were still in place and he would follow them.

**1) Priority:** Find the original Android 17 and merge with him (takes top priority until fulfilled). **Additional:** Locate Android 18 and bring her under control for the cause (already about to be fulfilled by controlled original 17)

**2) Priority: **Eradicate all human life on planet Earth, for later replacement with artificial creations (placed by Doctor Gero, not yet overriden by Doctor Muy´s master programming/still in place). - Prepare for galactic domination (placed by Doctor Muy).

He would fulfill the goals of his masters, even in their absence.

The chance to fulfill his first priority would come even sooner as he had anticipated.

xxx

A group of three figures suddenly appeared flying on the horizon and after a few moment landed close to him. One of them was an obvious alien humanoid he never seen before, the other one was being identified as the half-saiyan Trunks, the third however... but that was impossible... was Android 17.

But Android 17 was already under his control and currently on his way to confront Android 18. Still, this stranger looked exactly like him and the original Seventeen.

"Who are you?" Hellfighter asked them.

"Shouldn´t that be obvious," the one he had identified as Trunks asked him. "This is Android 17. Your data confirms it, doesn´t it?"

"It does," Hellfighter responded. "But I know that Android 17 is already somewhere else."

"That is true," The Priest answered. "He is now the Seventeen you know. But he is Android 17. The reason for this is that we all are travellers from another timeline. This phenomenon should be nothing too unlikely for you, right? After something similar had happened before with Cell and the Trunks who had appeared from an alternate future... and you yourself have just travelled between the Afterlife and the world of the living," he stated.

"Indeed," Hellfighter admitted.

"So this is the **way** for me you have been talking about?" Mirai 17 asked him. "I have to say, as much as I hate to speak well of that geezer, Doctor Gero had done an incredible work with this one. It is actually hard to believe that this is not really my counterpart but a copy."

"Yes," The Priest replied, "and he is able to unleash your true power. That is the reason we are here. Lord Demigra," he addressed the third member of their group, "if you would, please," he gestured to the being in front of him."

"Of course," the Demon replied, "you have now the honor to witness the power of a true god," he announced.

As the being before him begann to use his magic, Hellfighter got... there was no other way to say it... a strange feeling. For the most part he was a newly created, nearly completely emotionless Android.

Hellfighter possessed organic components. But they consisted of tsufurian cells, provided by his creators, that were for the most part merged directly with his mechanics on cellular level. He never were `human´ or anywhere close to it. And without the programming anomalies of for example Number 16.

Emotions were something his advanced AI had only developed in a limited range yet... and wasn´t really meant to have anyway. But he **knew**. He had access to all of the original Number Seventeen´s memories, to his life.

He knew he was powerful, far more than any other of Doctor Gero´s creations. Including the infamous Cell. But he knew he could be even more if he merged with the original 17.

So the first `emotion´ he developed was the wish and hunger for power.

He could override and control the minds of Doctor Gero´s other creations and make them do his bidding. He knew he could crush the most powerful beings in the universe into the ground... and he wanted to show it. He knew he could beat Son Goku.

He gladly took over the original 17´s ambition, his ego and of course his fighting skill and experience. But none of his compassion, his love for his family or his mercy... and absorbed it into himself. He became Android 17 as he was meant to be.

But now he was filled with another `feeling´. He was still intending to follow the objectives his masters had given to him. But he was also being filled with the wish to work with and for the strange being in front of him, to accept this Demigra as a new... a third... master. One whose wishes would have even priority over the other one.

"It is done," Lord Demigra said a moment later. "He is now mine."

"Good... very good," The Priest stated, "as I would have expected from a true god."

The demon only smiled confidently in return.

"You are right 17," The Priest addressed the Android who came with them, "he was created with the intention to unleash your full potential... and to **control** you. Exactly as it is happening now... Lord Demigra."

"Of course," the Demon replied.

The eyes of the Clone-Android started to glow red.

"What are you saying?" Mirai 17 asked in shock as he heard the last statement.

But it was already too late. Hellfighter´s powers were invading his mind, while he was himself being influenced by Demigra at the same time.

Seventeen practically felt how his power was growing... more and more with every moment... through the presence of the clone Android. At the same time however he sensed how he was loosing control of his body functions... and then finally his sense of self. How his mind was slowly changing under the influence of this being.

"Why?" he asked desperately.

"Seventeen...?" The Priest stated casually, "did you really think that I would not find out that you were planning to betray me? That you and your sister were plotting behind my back? And not only were you after my life, you actually wanted to keep me from realizing my plan. I am just being faster than you," he said to him with a `friendly´ smile.

"No," the Android wanted to shout, but he was already loosing control completely.

On Hellfighter´s part, he had a similar experience as when he took over the original 17. The experience of this Android was now becoming a part of him. But this time he saw pictures of world domination, of slaughtering the Z-fighters and countless others, of being unchallenged for decades... pictures he liked very much.

The two Androids were moving closer and closer to each other until they finally merged into one being.

In the background were standing The Priest and Demigra, watching the creation of their new warrior. Lord Demigra for his part however knew that this warrior, since it were his powers that controlled him, would be **his** in first line.

Should his new `partner´ come to the idea to betray him, he would make use of him.

* * *

This was a short chapter that mostly dealt with The Priest and his plans.

I have also introduced Demigra as an antagonist and brought a new version of Super 17.

The future timeline that The Priest was refering to to Demigra, was of course the events of the Dragon Ball Xenoverse Game.


	26. Chapter 26: Wrath of the Dragon

**Chapter 26**

_Earth, West City_

Trunks felt the new... in fact the two new powers that had just awakened. It was exactly like all those years ago.

He could not believe it. The monster named Hildegarn... and Tapion, he could feel both of them. They had been released, maybe a few thousand miles from here.

But how? he asked himself. Hoi... he must be here, somewhere on the planet. So much was clear.

Trunks remembered this being all too well from his own timeline.

How the alien wizard had some day shown up in West City, back then when he was still a child. How he had decived both his mother and Son Gohan with his story of the hero Tapion... or better said, with a half-truth about it.

He was earlier than expected. In his own world Hoi had appeared around two years from now on. In this one he was obviously faster for some reason.

But how was he able to open the sealed music box? The last time, as far as Trunks remembered, he had used the help of the Dragon Balls from Namek. But both Dragons were gone in this timeline.

Son Gohan and his mother had followed his words as he asked them for assistance in finding the `missing hero´ Tapion. Or more precisely to offer some sort of protection from the Androids that were terrorizing the planet. In truth Hoi had been easily able to locate the music box by himself. But with 17 and 18 around, the risk was just too great for him.

They had accepted... and that at least partly out of sheer desperation. The idea to have another super fighter, who could eventually fight against the Androids had been just too good to pass up. Even if it was someone they had never heard of before who came from a planet in another galaxy.

And even more important, Hoi had claimed to have been on the planet New Namek and had offered to bring them there with his space-ship, after they helped him fulfil his quest to free the hero Tapion. With the Dragon Balls that still existed there in his timeline they would have been able to bring at least a few of the people who had died through 17 and 18´s attacks back to life.

Yes, the sad thing was... it was too good to be true, Trunks thought.

Hoi´s story about the hero of the planet Konat sounded fascinating, especially for a child like Trunks, who had spend his entire life in a world terrorized by a terrible enemy. He heard in awe how the monster had rose over Konat, how the people suffered... and how Tapion had finally brought it down, becoming a hero and freeing his world.

It was just what Trunks wished would happen in his own as well.

The truth was it had all been one single giant disaster. Hoi´s true intention had been from the beginning to release a monster that might maybe have been even more dangerous than the Androids. He never knew.

This monster named Hildegarn was stopped before it was ever fully freed, before it could do to Earth what it once did to Konat.

But still, the pain and suffering this creature and his master caused to many people and especially for him, was... Trunks didn´t want to think back to it.

And now he was trying it once again, in this timeline here.

He knew that the others must have already sensed it as well. The outburst of energy was quite weak, by what he knew Hildegarn should at the very least be cabable of. But it still rivaled Freezer at around half his power and could be felt everywhere around the world.

If that was a small outbreak, what was Hildegarn´s full power?

xxxxxxx

At other places around the world, the rest of the Z-fighters and their acquaintances were sensing the beginning of the reawakening of the monster. Vegeta and the younger version of Trunks, who were also in West City, were only the ones closest to Trunks.

Half a world away, Son Gohan and Son Goten noticed it of course as well. The brothers looked at each other.

"Did you feel that?" Goten asked him.

"Yes," he replied. "Mom, there is something I need to take care of," he said while standing up.

"I see... so there´s someone else who causes trouble," Chichi said... clearly irritated.

"Obviously..." Gohan responded, "There had just been an outburst of energy and it certainly felt negative."

His mother nearly growled as she heard this.

"And I hoped we could spend our lives in peace, at least for a little while."

"The Priest is still out there," Gohan reminded her. "As long as he is, that **won´t** happen."

"I know," she stated. "But this isn´t this priest guy, right? This is yet another hooligan who shows up here and causes trouble for everyone. Damn it," she cursed.

"I will leave now Mom," he said. "With some luck we can maybe put and end to this before it even starts and I will be back to dinner." He smiled at her.

The energy he had felt wasn´t **that** great, he thought. It depended on how much more powerful this being could get. So maybe they could end this quickly.

"I want to come with you," Son Goten called out.

"No," their mother exclaimed. "It is bad enough that your beother constantly runs into danger like that, but you are only seven years old."

It had now turned into one of **that** discussions again, Gohan thought. But there was no time for that.

"I need to go now," he said. "Goten, you stay with Mom. I will call you when I need you. It is probably nothing too bad anyway. So **stay here** for now."

"Okay Son Gohan," his brother replied, obviously not too happy.

xxxxxxx

And there was one last group. This one was currently standing together at a clearing in Android 17´s favorite forest area in the Northern Districts. The group consisted - and that was more than a little strange from the build up - of him and his `sisters´. That meant of course both Number 18´s.

It was right now Seventeen´s and Eighteen´s turn to watch over the other timeline´s versions of his sister. Just like most days this three had spend together, it had been more than just a bit awkward. Of course it was not nearly as bad as their first longer conversation with each other had been.

The first part of the day they had spend in the closest town to this area, then a few hours in Seventeen´s cabin out here... and finally they had spend the last of the time wandering out here is the woods.

Both Eighteens were not exactly happy about staying for hours out here in the nowhere. But it was still better than most alternatives. At least in the present day Eighteen´s mind.

Someone had suggested that they could stay at Kame House, but 18 had strictly spoken against it. She wanted to keep her evil double as far away from Marron as possible. In fact she would have preferred it if she didn´t even knew that Marron existed.

"You are telling me that you are actually considering taking this... ahm job?" Mirai 18 asked this timeline´s counterpart of her brother dumbfounded.

"Yes, I am seriously thinking about it," 17 replied, "... Why not?"

"Why not, you ask," she exclaimed. "You are talking about a job as a **Park Ranger**... a blasted Park Ranger out here in these woods. You would be working for humans... pretending to be one of them."

"And?" he retorted. "They would let me do whatever I want for the most time. I will be left alone. It is kind of interesting and I will even get paid a large sum of money. So what´s the problem to you?"

"You two should be ruling this world," Mirai 18 called out. "That is the problem. You should be killing every human you come across, not accepting a job from them."

"That is typical of you," this timeline´s Eighteen, who was standing next to them, commented.

"Of course it is," her counterpart responded. "We are Androids. We are not meant to mingle with humans like that. You even had married and had a child with one. There is something wrong with both of you."

Eighteen swallowed down her anger and grief about being reminded of Krillin for a moment.

"Or maybe we have just become something different than Doctor Gero intended," she countered. "You may have killed him, just like we did... but in the end you are exactly what he wanted you to be."

For a few moments Mirai 18 was not saying anything, just looking at her silently.

"I am what an Android is suppossed to be," she finally answered.

"Yes, a killing-machine that does **exactly** what our creator designed it to do," Eighteen gave back.

Seventeen for his part only grinned at her.

"Let me see, you had spend your entire time attacking and killing humans, wasn´t it? For someone who told us that you wanted **nothing** to do with humans, you had certainly spend a lot of time purposely hunting them down and attacking them," he remarked sarcastically. "If I don´t won´t to spend time around humans, I just go to a place where are none to beginn with. So who of us is smarter here?" he grinned at her.

"17, that is not funny," his sister stated.

"No, it is really **not**," he confirmed. "Quite the opposite actually." His voice switched in one moment from cheerful and mocking to grim and serious, nearly as if he had been putting up an act before.

There conversation however was at this point being interrupted.

"Do you feel that?" Eighteen asked him.

"Of course I do," he replied.

Mirai 18, who had along with her own 17 had learned to sense energy during their training with The Priest, had sensed it as well.

"This energy wasn´t that high. Hardly something for **you** to worry about, is it?" she commented. "Maybe you should leave this to the others and think about how to deal with The Priest."

"Unless this is not it´s full strength," Eighteen pointed out, "and that is very likely."

"And by all that we know about his methods, The Priest might be **behind** this," 17 told them. "So we better at least check this out. You wouldn´t know something about this, wouldn´t you?" he asked the counterpart of his sister.

"No..." she answered. "As I told you, I have left The Priest. Even if he has to do something with this, I wouldn´t know."

In some sense she was telling the truth here. She had actually been left out of many parts of the plan that would come `after´ her staged defection... at least the ones that she as not `suppossed´ to give to the Z-fighters. Just to make it easier for her to play her role, as he told her.

She would be more convincing if she really had no idea what he and her brother would do next. Like just now.

Was The Priest involved in this? It was good possible, but she could not tell.

Without another word the three Androids lifted off the ground and flew in the direction of the source of ki they had just felt.

xxxxxxx

_West City_

Trunks was just meeting up with Vegeta and Tarble in front of the Capsule Corp. building.

"Father, this energy..." he said.

"I am just on my way to deal with it," Vegeta responded. "Whatever it is this time," he commented. Then he looked at his brother who was flying beside him. "Tarble has decided to come as well," he commented.

The newly arrived saiyan had grown much stronger during the last months. He had made great progress while training with his brother Vegeta. But he was still far away from being a match for any of them or even from reaching the first SSJ level.

"I know what it is. I have met this being before in my world," Trunks stated.

"Yes? How strong is it?"

"I am not sure," he admitted. "I have never seen it when it was fully released. This being is a monster... a demon who was cut into two pieces and then sealed away about a thousand years ago."

"I see. It is a story like **that** again. So that means we might be in for a surprise," Vegeta replied.

"Yes, we might," Trunks admitted. "But it seems he is kind of early. In my timeline he appeared only in two years from now on."

"Tell us everything you know about this enemy," his father demanded.

"It is a long story," Trunks responded.

"Tell just the important things. You have time until we arrive," he said grimly.

In this moment they received a telepathic message from Piccolo, that informed them that he was on his way and Son Gohan and the Androids as well.

xxxxxxx

A short time later Trunks, his father Vegeta and his newfound uncle Tarble were the first who arrived at the place.

What they found was not quite what they... or at least what Vegeta and Tarble... would have expected. Trunks however, who had dealt with Hoi and Hildegarn before, was another matter.

Below them was a range of mountains that looked as if a large chunk had been blown out of it and a crater left in the ground.

Right in front of the rubble however was lying the body of a young man from obvious alien heritage. His skin was in a color of a very light purple or pink. He had pointy ears who were standing away from his head and his hair was bright orange and cut in the form of a mohawk.

In opposite to the dwarf sized Hoi, this person was in the size of a grown human, about the same size as Trunks.

**Tapion**, the half-saiyan recognized him instantly. Of course he did. This was his friend from his childhood. The only one he had beside Gohan. And who he had lost in a similar way.

"Is this here this Tapion you have been talking about?" Vegeta asked him.

"Yes, it is him," Trunks answered. "He is alive... and uninjured," he said after checking on the counterpart of his old friend. For a few seconds he was starring wordlessly at the unconscious young man before him. "As far as I can tell the monster is still trapped inside his body. Just not longer inside the box."

"That only left the one who had freed them in the first place," Vegeta responded. He reached out with his senses, but could find nothing. "It seems like your alien-wizard has vanished," he stated.

"That is something Hoi had always been good at," Trunks replied.

"How powerful you said this opponent was at the minimum?" Tarble asked him.

His uncle was no coward, by far not, Trunks knew this. But he was fully aware how outmatched he was by the others around him. And if **they** saw reason to worry, then he knew that he would probably be able to do very little.

"I said it be at least as much of a problem as the Androids of my time had been... most likely much stronger. That means Hildegarn should he be fully released. Hoi himself for his part is not very strong physically. But he is a wizard and even I am not sure what exactly he is capable of."

"Not that it would make a great difference for me," Tarble replied depressed. "If this monster will be able to cause problems for **you**, it is clear that I am useless."

"Don´t be so hard on yourself uncle. You have just started your training with father a few months ago."

"Trunks has a point," Vegeta stated. "You are a member of the Royal Family and you are just proving your potential, no matter what some people have said in the past." He was of course refering to him being labeled and weak and the verdict of their own father to send him away from their home-planet. "You might not have reached it yet, but you are on the best way to reach Super Saiyajin. I admit you managed to impress me... somewhat... brother," he said.

Tarble knew, out of Vegeta´s mouth, this was probably the greatest praise he would ever hear.

"But even for a SSJ there are a few beings in this universe he can not deal with," he continued. "If this creature really turns out to be as dangerous as Trunks fears, let **us** deal with it."

"Tapion is out could," Trunks reminded them. "Maybe we should take him along with us. Mother can take a look at him... both of them. Maybe they can find something to keep Hildegarn trapped inside his body."

There was a small hope of that, he thought. Otherwise they would have just to face the monster in battle. The power that he and the others had reached during the last years was unbelievable by the standards of the time from back then. They were all far stronger than he would have ever thought possible.

So he was quite confident that they would defeat Hildegarn if it came to that. Still he couldn´t help the silent fear somewhere in the back of his mind that history would repeat itself.

It was about a minute later that Piccolo arrived. As they had explained the situation to him, he send out another call to the others to meet them at Capsule Corporation instead.

xxx

From a few miles away, hiding his energy, the Wizard Hoi was meanwhile watching the group of strangers ascending up into the sky, carrying Tapion. He was literally fuming with anger.

He had been so close. Hoi remembered how the music box had begann to play, for the first time in thousand years. The seal was released and Tapion was freed.

Hoi saw in delight how the music box actually burst and was destroyed by the unleashed energy.

Tapion materialized just in front of him, just like he had been thousand years ago. Even still playing that cursed flute that allowed him to influence Hildegarn´s mind and hold him back.

Hoi activated his own magic powers, holding it against Tapion´s ki and his determination. He was trying to weaken his opponent enough that the monster could be completely freed.

It had never been the music box that was Hildegarn´s actual prison. No, it was Tapion´s body and soul. A thousand years ago the two konatians had willingly allowed the two halves of the creature to be placed into themselves, after one of their kind had cut him apart.

The two music boxes were a tool to make it permanent, to lock them away forever... themselves and Hildegarn both.

In this moment Tapion stopped playing on his instrument... and fell down. He had passed out, Hoi saw. After his long imprisonment, this struggle was obviously too much for him.

Good, this was the perfect opportunity to free the rest of Hildegarn once and for all.

But then he sensed **them**. A small group was approaching this place, flying and they were coming closer quickly. Maybe it were locals. Or maybe even friends of this wench Zangya who had just abandoned him.

He knew he had no time. They would arrive every second... and he would not just stay here and hope that they were friendly. That were not the ways that let him survive for a thousand years in the first place.

For all he knew these people would blast him away on sight. So he retreated... for the moment at least.

Less than 20 seconds later **they** arrived. He could only watch in helpless anger, from a save distance, how they took Tapion and **left** with him.

But this wouldn´t change anything. Without the music box, there was only a limited time that Tapion would be able to hold Hildegarn. Sooner or later, he would be free again.

Hoi decided to return to the place where he had left his ship for now... and the lower half of Hildegarn´s body.

xxxxxxx

_Capsule Corp. building, a short time later_

Trunks was standing inside the infirmary of Capsule Corporation. He was looking at the body that was lying on a hospital bed before him.

He knew this was not the same Tapion he knew from these years ago. It was his counterpart from this timeline. Technically they had never even met before. But that did not make him much calmer.

Trunks remembered how he had met both Tapion and Hoi for the first time back in his own timeline.

xxxxxxx

_It was nine years after the first appearance of the Androids and 17´s and 18´s reign of terror had not yet reached the full extend it would have later._

_That only meant that at least few of the major cities on Earth were still standing at that time. It meant that the population was still more than half of what it had once been, that a few bastions of humanity were still standing.  
_

_But that only meant that they as well, were only waiting to fall..._

_xxx_

_Trunks, who would turn ten years old in a few weeks, was flying side by side with Son Gohan to the sight of the latest emergency call they had heard._

_This time it was not one of the greater towns that had been hit, but a small village about a thousand kilometers north from West City._

_As they arrived, they found just what they had expected. The village had been wiped out._

_Houses were either burning or were completely razed to the ground. A few craters were to see in the landscape, caused by the impact of ki blasts..._

_... and the ground before them was littered with the dead bodies of the people who once lived here. It were the bodies of men, women, of children and old people. Nobody had been spared._

_The Androids of course were long gone. They had received the call only late, after the destruction had started and this was a small place. Gohan had known that they would be too late to confront 17 and 18 from the beginning.  
_

_Otherwise he would have never brought Trunks with him. He knew the boy had a great potential and some day he would be a great help against their enemy. But he was just a child. He was far from ready to actually fight against these monsters yet... and he wouldn´t be for years._

_"They are now hitting more and more smaller settlements," Son Gohan stated._

_"Do you think that means they will leave the larger towns alone for a while?" Trunks asked him._

_"I am not sure," Gohan admitted. "The Androids are unpredictable. They might concentrate on smaller villages for now. Or they might target them and the larger towns equally from now on. I don´t know."_

_Suddenly they heard something. Both of them froze. The Androids **were** gone weren´t they? They both asked themselves the same question._

_As they made out the source of the noise, they could see it coming from a small pile of rubble, next to one of the houses. There was someone trapped beneath it.  
_

_As Gohan lifted the debris up, they saw the form of a very small old man. Trunks noticed instantly that he had a very strange skin color and ears.  
_

_But on the other side he knew that there were people on this world who looked, well, unusual. One of the old friends of his mother who he had seen on photos was green, another one had three eyes. So this guy here shouldn´t be **that** strange, right?_

_"Are you okay?" Gohan asked the old man._

_"Y... yes," he answered. "I just came travelling through this village as these... these two... appeared. Are they gone?" he asked nervously._

_"Yes they are. You were travelling? With the threat of the Androids?"_

_"I... I admit I have never heard of these Androids," the old man replied. "I am not from here."_

_"You would have to be from another planet to have never heard of them," Trunks commented._

_"Indeed I am," the man stated. "I came to this world searching for something... something very important."_

_"Whatever it is," Gohan told him, "for now we should better bring you to a friend of me to have you checked over. Just to make sure that you don´t have any remaining injuries."  
_

_"What?" the man called out. "But I need to find it. The object I am looking for is very important for the future of this planet... and for many others as well."_

_This part sparked Son Gohan´s interest.  
_

_"Maybe you should explain it to us more in detail," he said. "What exactly are you looking for? Can you tell us more?" _

_As Gohan said this, the face of the old man turned more and more into a friendly smile._

_"Of course, I will tell you anything you want to," Hoi replied. "I will tell you why it is so important for your world to find it."_

_xxx_

Trunks thoughts returned to the presence. He knew they should have been more careful. They should have never brought the enchanted music boxes to West City, they should not have followed Hoi without question. If they had paid closer attention, had been more distrustful, maybe they would have noticed that something was amiss about his story... maybe.

But they had been desperate for any kind of hope at that time.

xxxxxxx

Light-years away from the planet Earth, in another part of the galaxy, The Priest and his allies had just returned to this universe. With both, a version of the Android called `Super 17´ and the Demon Demigra on his side, he was now as good as invincible.

That meant as long as Demigra stayed loyal. It was clear to him that right not in the moment, with his power to control the other warriors, his ally was actually the one holding all cards in his hands. If Demigra would decide to turn them against him and take over, there was little he could do about it.

At least until he finally realized his next step that would give his master once again access to this universe. Then the control would be back in his hand... or more precisely in the ones of his master.

Still he hated to be put into a position like this. But he needed Demigra for the next stage of his plan.

To get his counterpart Trunks to claim Godly Ki for himself, he needed warriors on his side who were powerful enough to force him to do it. And the Demon Lords abilities were the best way to control this warriors.

The knowledge he had given to him about the other timeline were he had been freed and then defeated would make Demigra think twice about betraying him, he was sure.

He had tried by himself before and failed. It was only thanks to The Priest´s intervention that he was even here right now. If he struck out on his own again, he would only take the risk of history repeating itself.

This facts would make him see the value of their alliance. Well, at least The Priest thought so.

Of course it was hard to predict how a self-proclaimed Demon-God would react.

He was watching the object in front of him, the egg of the Demon Buu. During the last weeks he had been supplying it with energy, just like Babidi had originally planned it until 17 and 18 took care of him. Soon the demon would awaken and so add another useful warrior for their group.

Another one Demigra would be able to control.

Even if... and he doubted that would happen given what he had seen of his state of mind... the demon should decide to turn against him, things could still work out for him.

The natural order of this cluster of universes was already heavily damaged. Should his plan to merge himself with his counterpart and ruin this order completely, he could still reach his goal in different ways.

Of course he would fail in his personal ambition to become stronger through a fusion with this version of himself. But that was far less important than the interests of his master.

In some ironic twist, a nearly invincible group of demonic warriors, led by Demon Lord Demigra and the chaos they would cause, might be just the thing that could throw this reality over the edge. So even if he, against his expectations, **should** betray him in the end, it might actually help him to reach his final goal.

He thought about Hildegarn, the old opponent who had in many senses, helped to make him who he was.

The other Trunks... the one he had chosen to become a part of himself... was carrying the same sword as he did. That meant he had lived through the same events as well.

Given that his world in opposite to his own still existed, it was quite possible that he had done what he himself had failed to do. It would be quite ironic. Or maybe he had just never come into this situation.

The Priest remembered the scene:

_Tapion, who was kneeling before him... asking to kill him. To keep the monster from being freed. _

It had been the day when he had failed.

That was a long time ago.

The question was, would the confrontation with Hildegarn force them to unlock the Godly Ki, like he hoped?

Or would they find another way to win. Then his new `team´ of warriors under Demigra´s influence would give them the final `motivation´ to do it.

Would Trunks turn into a Super Saiyajin God himself to defeat this foe? Or would he... since he knew for a long time that The Priest actually intended for him to reach this level... rather leave it to Vegeta or Son Gohan? That would be the wisest decision given his situation.

But his saiyan blood would demand that he defeated Hildegarn himself. What would Trunks follow, his warrior instincts or his caution? How will he react, faced with another nightmare from his childhood?

It did not made a difference. If this didn´t cause Trunks to transform into a God Ki user, the next challenge he would place upon him would.

How much will it take for his counterpart to give up his ideals and his resistance against him? he was playing the question through his mind.

There was another scene that he... The Priest... would never forget.

_xxxxxxx_

_He and Son Gohan were standing at the town´s plaza of West City, his hometown... in front of a crowd of people. Or better said it were the devastated leftovers of that had once been the town´s plaza._

_It was an angry crowd.  
_

_They were all citizens of this town. People who had lived next to Trunks and his mother Bulma for years. They all knew what his mother had done over the years for many people who were suffering under the Androids. All the help she offered for refugees and homeless.  
_

_They all knew who Son Gohan was, how he had fought the Androids for years, saved and protected countless people, risking his own life every time._

_But none of that mattered right now._

_xxx_

_It was over two days ago that the monster that Hoi and Tapion called Hildegarn had been freed... that they fully realized that they had been deceived._

_Hoi had brought the music box they had found together and brought it to West City, together with the one he had brought with him from space... and opened them both with the object he said he had gotten from Pollunga, with their assistance, Trunks remembered in shame. _

_It was only then that they found out the truth. Tapion and his brother had both been set free. But the two halves of the Beast inside them, so close to each other they had not longer been able to hold them. _

_Just like Hoi had planned. That was now three days ago. _

_One event followed the other. Tapion had finally explained the story to them, the true and full story. His younger brother had been killed the following day in the fight against Hildegarn. _

_Together they tried to prevent the complete release of the monster... and they failed. The first thing Hildegarn had done after being reunited was to lay waste to a great part of West City. Until Hoi had finally decided that it was enough for the day and retreated for the moment... but only after hundreds had died.  
_

_On top of that he had announced in public that it had been** them** who released the monster._

_And rumors and insecurity followed, spreading over the town._

_xxx_

_Now they were standing here. Gohan had just admitted the role they had played in freeing the monster who had just attacked West City... and they were facing the wrath of and angry crowd of normal humans. _

_It was as if all the good they had done in these years was suddenly forgotten. All what mattered to these people was that they had unknowingly unleashed yet another monster on the world, another thing to be afraid of. _

_And their anger about that had found it´s target now. _

_Someone in the crowd called out an insult to them, another followed quickly. The shouts became louder and louder. All of them blamed Son Gohan and Bulma for what had happened._

_Some people in the crowd were even starting to throw stones at them, left from the destruction that Hildegarn had caused. Or garbage that had been lying on the streets._

_Son Gohan was just standing there, not saying a word, not even trying to defend himself, taking it all. _

_Trunks, who had only recently turned ten years old, was seeing and hearing all of this. _

_What gave this people even the right to talk like that about Gohan? a part of him thought, someone who had been risking his life for them every day. Who did they think they were?  
_

_This was the day that they boy who would become The Priest found out just how unthankful the world was. _

_It was then when he realized one thing, these people never deserved Gohan´s or his help to beginn with._

* * *

**Authors notes:** The first flashback scene in this chapter happened in the regular Mirai timeline, since it were Mirai Trunks memories.

The second one had happened only in the Priest´s timeline.

xxx

About the guest review, pointing out that Vegeta is able to control the Oozaru form. Yes he is, the normal one. But the Golden Ape form is different from the regular one. Generally you need the help of a person close to you to regain your senses in that form.

Even Vegeta seemed to have problems with it and needed to concentrate his mind on Bra to gain control of it.


	27. Chapter 27: Trunks choice

**Chapter 27**

_Earth, West City_

Tapion was still lying unconscious in the medical station of the Capsule Corporation building.

Trunks was at the moment standing at the side, while the younger version of his mother and his grandfather were taking a look at the patient.

His mother from his own timeline was still working on the idea Trunks had suggested to them two days ago. For that they had temporally interrupted their work on the Super Android project.

Now two of them were in turn temporally interrupting that work as well to look over Tapion.

"How is he?" Trunks asked them.

"Physically he seemed to be alright," Bulma answered. "But, with the presence of this creature in his body... I can not really tell."

"I know," he replied. "That is what I am truly worried about. Not just his physical health," he said.

Trunks knew that Tapion was always struggling to keep Hildegarn inside himself, using all of his mental strength to do that. But there was no telling how much strain that was putting on him.

"Tell me mother, how far have you come with the work on the time-machine?" he asked her then.

"You mean this idea that you had," Bulma responded. "Well, for once I have to say it actually looks good. Come, I will show you."

She was leading him to one of the labs of the building.

Inside she and Trunks came face to face with her other older self who as still busy working on his `secret project´.

"Did you come any further?" this timeline´s Bulma asked the other one.

This secret project was at a first look just his time-machine that had been plugged into a computer, at least at the first look.

"I think we will have it very soon," the older Bulma answered. "The time-machine is programmed to save the data for every timeline it had visited before. This part is easy. The problem is the addition of over two decades of time and to find this exact point in that history. But we have nearly done it." She grinned. "I was just able to find the right set of coordinates."

"Of course," her younger counterpart replied. "I should have known that you could also do it without me, while I was busy with helping Tapion. You know more about the time-machine than me after all. Well, you are the genius who invented it in the first place. **This** here wasn´t truly that difficult at all, right? At least for someone **like us**." Bulma returned her other selves smile with the same measure of pride.

"Mother, if you could stop congratulating yourself," Trunks told her, but he as well sounded obviously amused, "I think you should continue and **finish** this. We have no way to know when The Priest will return and as much as I hate to admit it... we need help. If he would come and knock on our door right now, we would be completely helpless, just like the last times."

"Of course Trunks," his mother, the one from his own timeline responded. "The last things we need to do is to program the coordinates into the time-machine and to fully recharge it."

"Capsule Corp has more than enough energy collected," her younger counterpart suggested. "So this won´t take long."

Both Bulmas did have an quite uneasy look in their eyes as he brought up The Priest. It was not easy to take for either of them that their current terrible enemy was nobody else than a version of their son.

"As things are I think you might be able to start by tomorow," the older Bulma stated.

Trunks idea was actually quite simply. So simple that he was surpised that he didn´t thought about it earlier. Or maybe that was the reason. It was just so damn simple that none of them had considered it.

The plan he had thought of was just this, to travel with the time-machine to the future of the original past he had visited years before... and get help from the Z-fighters of that had seen the level they had reached in the recording he had been shown. They were more than capable to beat The Priest.

So absurd easy. Or maybe not quite, he thought. His time-machine was only able to carry two people and even that was cramped.

That meant he would normally only be able to bring one person with him, in the best case. This one person would in this situation most likely be either his father Vegeta or one of the Super Androids. Only one person. But with their kind of power, that would already make a hell of a difference.

In this case however he might be even more lucky. When he had returned to his future after the Cell Games all those years ago, he had left the second time-machine behind in the care of his younger mother, the one that Cell had used to travel into the past.

That meant he could maybe even bring all three of them in this universe. **If** things were going well.

There was actually no guaranty that his mother would still have the second time-machine after all those years. It could have been destroyed during one of the many battles Ne-Me-Sys had shown him or through an accident. Or the counterpart of his mother could have simply changed her mind and destroyed it to make sure no enemies would get their hands on the time-machine.

To that came the usual problems of reaching the exact point in the particular timeline you wanted... and the same for the return to your own present, of preserving enough energy for the journey back and hoping that nothing else interfered in your travel. Cell was the best example here.

And right now, thanks to The Priest, the structure of time and space was already damaged. It was good possible that another attempt to cross timelines and even bring people here would contribute to the problem and make everything worse. But what choice did they have?

Even if Vegeta and Son Gohan became Super Saiyajin Gods, it would not be enough to defeat The Priest. Even if they took the risk to try SSJ4, it would not be enough. They wouldn´t just need to get this powers, but also to completely master and control them and that would take time, that they didn´t have.

What else? A Fusion? By what he had seen they were unstable and unreliable. Seriously, he had seen three of them in battles were the fate of the universe at stake, Gotenks, Vegeto and Gogeta... and despite being stronger than their opponents all three had managed to mess it up. Beside that, the time limit for the fusion-dance was merely 30 minutes. The Priest could teleport, even if they managed to surpass his power, he could easily avoid them for so long. And they would still need to achieve God Ki first or even the Fusion technique would not be enough.

No, their best chance was to get help from the other timeline. But if he time-travelled now, it was hard to say when he would be back... and with Hildegarn here, waiting to break out...

"I am not sure if I am the one who should go," Trunks said to them. "The time-machine is still not working as precise as we would like to, despite all your work on it," he stated. "There is still an error margin of a few days. If I leave now it might take a week before I am back. Hildegarn could be freed any moment and for all we know The Priest could be behind it all and only waiting for it to happen. If I leave now..."

He knew he didn´t need to finish the sentence. Whatever might happen, he would not be here to help.

"Maybe **you** should go mother," he told her. "You know the time-machine even better than me and one of you is enough to watch over Tapion."

Mirai Bulma looked at him for a moment with a bit of surprise. Maybe he was right, she thought. Trunks was needed here... all of the fighters were if this monster would be released or even worse... if The Priest returned. But her younger self could deal with the things here alone if needed.

"I will go," she stated.

xxxxxxx

It was a only few minutes later that Tapion woke up. He was looking around in panic for a few seconds. Understandable, the last person he had seen after being freed from his magical imprisonment was Hoi.

As he saw Bulma´s father, who was nearly instantly calling for the other, he begann to calm down. This wasn´t Hoi, it was obviously one of the natives who had found him.

"Where... where am I?" he asked.

"You are in Capsule Corporation in West City," Doctor Briefs told him. "...on the planet Earth," he added, remembering that the others said that this man as an alien. "Vegeta and Trunks had brought you here."

Tapion of course didn´t understand half of the things he was saying. He neither knew what in the world Capsule Corporation was or who Vegeta and Trunks were. What he **did** understood was the name of the planet he was on... Earth.

In this moment a group of other people entered the room. One young man with lavender hair who was wearing a blue jacket and two blue haired women who were looking nearly identical except the age difference. They were closely followed by another tall young man, who seemed to be in his teens, with dark hair. They all had the same skin color as the first older man.

At the door of the room, he also saw two children standing. One of them was looking remarkable like the lavender haired young man, the other like the dark haired teenager. Both of them were looking at him with obvious curiosity.

"Is this the guy who came out of the music-box?" the black haired boy asked.

"Yes Son Goten. He looks really cool, don´t you think?" the other replied. "We should talk to him as soon as we can. I am sure there is much interesting he can tell us."

Tapion suppressed a grin as he heard the exchange of the two children. To be honest he didn´t feel very `cool´ at the moment, whatever this term meant. He was a threat to everyone around him, to this entire world. He should have never been released.

Tapion knew he needed to warn these people... or even more important, get as far away from them as possible.

"You have brought me here?" he asked.

"Yes, we have found you unconscious," the younger blue haired woman said to him.

Then Tapion once again felt the pain that was flowing through his body. Hildegarn, he was trying to get out. There was no time.

"I need to leave," he told them quickly and stood up from the bed.

"And **where** do you want to go?" the lavender haired young man asked him. "Hoi has fled when he sensed us arriving, but he will surely find you again... And you know you can not hold Hildegarn in your body forever. Do you really think just running and bringing some distance between you and us will keep anyone save? He will devastate our entire world, just like he did it with yours."

Tapion was now looking at him sharply. Whatever he was expecting, it was certainly not that the natives were aware of his history.

"You know about Hildegarn?" he asked surprised.

"Yes. I know about everything what happened to you," Trunks replied. "I also have a good idea what must have happened to your brother."

At the mention of Minotia Tapion´s sadness was showing through for a short moment, before his face became stern again.

"How do you know about all this?" Tapion wanted to know.

"That is a long story. We will tell you everything. We look for a way to deal with Hildegarn, one way or the other. But first let us meet with the others. I am Trunks, this are my mother Bulma, my grandfather and Son Gohan," he introduced some of the others.

xxxxxxx

A few minutes later they all were sitting together. The story they had told him so far was nearly unbelievable. He himself only accepted it for two reasons. First off his own situation wasn´t exactly easy to swallow and second because of the line of people who was just sitting in front of him.

`Trunks´, as the young man had introduced himself, had by now told him the names of the others. The young boy´s name he was seen was also named Trunks, just like the blue haired women were both named Bulma. They were the same person. The older versions were time-travellers from the future. That was also the reason they knew about Hildegarn.

The young man he had introduced as Son Gohan was, according to Trunks, once his mentor, despite currently being younger than him.

Even more unsettling were the three teenagers that were named after numbers, a young man with shoulder long black hair and two completely identical looking blonde women who were clearly his sisters... or better said his **sister** and her counterpart from another timeline.

He could not feel any life energy from any of them. By what he had been told they were artificially modified humans, `created´ by a mad scientist several years ago.

But that what maybe convinced him more than anything else was something quite simply. The sword that Trunks had with him. It was the same as the holy sword he was carrying himself... exactly the same. But that should have been impossible, unless there was something about their story.

And if some of them had lived through this before...?

As absurd as all that sounded, he himself as an alien who had been spend the last thousand years inside a magical sealed music-box, to keep a monster imprisoned inside his body from getting out. So who was he to talk?

The last four members of the group in front of them were Trunks father and Bulma´s husband Vegeta, his younger brother Tarble, a green skinned alien named Piccolo and Son Gohan´s brother Son Goten.

In the end it didn´t really matter what their story was. Hoi and Hildegarn needed to be stopped and if they were willing and maybe even able to help.

He hated to get even more people involved into this, but it didn´t truth was they were already involved, everybody in this universe was.

Trunks was right, if he isolated himself, if he decided to hide in an unpopulated area, it was simply an invitation for Hoi to get to him again and help to release the monster. It didn´t matter **where** on this planet Hildegarn would be freed. He would destroy **all** of it anyway.

To that came that, according to what this people were saying, there was another threat out there. Someone named `The Priest´. By the way they were talking about him, he sounded as if he might even be just as dangerous as Hildegarn. Things could hardly be any worse.

"Hey," he heard someone interrupting his thoughts, "you said your name is Tapion? And you have a monster sealed inside you? Are you really from another planet?"

It was the boy, the younger version of Trunks who asked him this questions, Tapion realized. He and his friend Son Goten had just come into the room a minute ago and joined the others.

"Yes I am," he answered. "But you should be careful around me boy. The monster is very dangerous... and it is trying to get out. You better stay away from me."

"And?... I am not afraid," Kid Trunks replied, sounding clearly not impressed.

"You should be. Hildegarn is a beast that only exists to destroy. His power is nearly limitless. If he ever get loose, he could not only destroy this world but the entire universe."

"Our parents has already defeated many monsters," Trunks responded. "Even some who could have destroyed the universe as well. We will find a way to beat him. Trust us."

Hearing the child´s hopeful words, a smile begann now to form on Tapion´s couldn´t help, but the boy reminded him of his younger brother, his brother who he would never see again thanks to Hoi. He wished he could have the same kind of hope. But he knew fist hand how dangerous Hildegarn was.

What he didn´t knew however was the power of the Z-fighters.

xxx

Trunks was watching how his younger self and Tapion were getting to know each other and started to bond. Just like it was for him once.

Only this time it didn´t happen in a destroyed world with only him and Son Gohan still alive. This time they didn´t fell for Hoi´s deceptions. This time they had a chance.

"Is there any chance we can seal away this Hildegarn for good Bulma?" Gohan asked the younger version of her.

"I am not sure," she admitted. "I am still researching the remains of the music-box. But even with them, there is a good chance we would have to once again lock way Tapion along with the monster."

"I would make the same sacrifice again, if it saved everyone else," Tapion told them.

"This won´t be necessary," Vegeta stated. "We will simply beat this creature when it breaks out. How strong can it be?"

"Hildegarn is practically invincible," Tapion warned him.

"The had been said about Freezer, Cell, Ne-Me-Sys and Broly... and we have killed them all," he replied. "In the worst case we will have to use this Godly Ki Trunks had been talking about."

"That is exactly what The Priest wants from us," Mirai Trunks reminded him.

"Yes it is," Vegeta responded. "**And? **Do you honestly think we could avoid this forever? It may be what he wants, but it is also the only possible way for us to beat him. What else do you suggest, that we stay weaker than him forever? Or that we hope we can leave it to someone else to beat him, someone we don´t even know we can find? Because we don´t have the guts to use this power against him? How long do you think The Priest will just stand by and wait if we continue like this?"

Trunks knew his father had a point. The Priest could attack them any time. That was the reason his mission to reach the other timeline was so important.

Tapion had listened to their conversation, but to be honest he had barely understood half of it. But anyway, he knew one thing. What truly mattered now was to find a way to stop Hildegarn and Hoi, to seal the Beast away once again or it that failed, to destroy it.

He was willing to go as far for that and give as much as necessary, even his own life.

xxx

Mirai Bulma was nervous, for more than one reason. The time-machine would be ready by tomorow and as they had agreed, she would be the one making the trip.

The other more obvious reason for her nervousness was, she was currently sitting close to the Androids. While she had gotten used to this timeline´s versions, they had by now more than proofed to her that they weren´t like their counterparts, Mirai 18 was also with them. She was the one who had **actually** devastated her world and killed her friends.

And like most of the others, she didn´t believe for a moment that this Cyborg actually had a change of heart. No, it had to be some scheme of this insane version of her son. You could hardly blame her for not wanting to be around her or being nervous around her.

None of them actually trusted her and they were keeping an eye on the Android all around the clock. If she would try something they would know.

She herself would leave tomorrow if things were going right.

xxxxxxx

It was one day later. Just like the younger Bulma had predicted the time-machine was now ready and it, along with her older counterpart, was ready to leave.

Her son Trunks, her younger self, Vegeta, Tarble, Son Gohan, the younger Trunks and Tapion were standing together to give their goodbye to her, at least for the next few days hopefully. With the complications of time-travel it was hard to say when exactly she would return. If the calculations were only a little bit off, it could take weeks.

They could only hope that the help Trunks had hoped for would arrive before it was too late.

"Good luck mother," he said to her. "Come back as soon as possible."

"I will do my best," she answered him.

She nodded to him. Bulma entered the time-machine and activated the controls. A second later she was gone.

The rest of them of course still had other things to do. From continuing their research on Tapion and Hildegarn to, in Vegeta´s case, training.

The younger Trunks had during the last day been much around Tapion, starting to develop the friendship that mirrored his older counterpart´s. Hopefully it would not end in the same tragic way.

xxxxxxx

_West City, two days later_

Of course while all that happened, Hoi had been following both Hildegarn´s and Tapion´s energy signatures. He did it slowly to hide his own energy from being detected. But by now he had reached the borders of the city.

He knew that the natives who had taken Tapion were quite strong, at least. He had been able to sense their energy the last time and knew that was probably only a small part of what they were capable of. **All** of them were clearly more than he could deal with.

Normally he would go for deceiving them. But since Tapion was with them it was very likely that he had already told them `his´ version of the events. So he could not risk that.

That meant he would have to rely on the lower half of Hildegarn´s body that was lying in waiting and was ready to be conjured at his command. But as long as Tapion was holding the upper half, he was vulnerable. All what it would take was for Tapion to die and Hildegarn would be destroyed with him. And as he knew this fool, he would actually consider sacrificing his own life to safe this worthless planet.

If only Hildegarn were already fully freed. Not matter how strong they were, they would have no chance against him. But for now he would have to work with what he had.

Hoi took out the object he was carrying with him, the second music-box with the broken lock and opened it up. Moments later Hildegarn´s giant form started to manifest behind him. All up to his weist. The part of his body above that was missing.

But it was more than enough to cause a great deal of damage and at least serve as an distraction. While Hildegarn´s lower half was busy wrecking the town, he would use the chaos to hide out and wait for a chance to get close to Tapion. With some luck he would get the chance to release the rest of Hildegarn and finish them all off at once.

There was some risk involved. Hoi knew he needed to get to Tapion before he decided to do something stupid. Like having one of the other fighters kill hin or just do it himself. He should find him quickly.

He had been on this quest for a thousand years, he would not give up.

Hildegarn´s under half that he had just unleashed was starting to move. He had just reached the city limit and was smashing the walls of the first building with his long tail.

xxxxxxx

The Z-fighters felt it nearly immediately. It was the same energy as the last time, only much stronger... and much closer. It was right here in the city.

Vegeta came running out of the high-gravity chamber were he had spend the greatest part of the day. He was closely followed by Trunks who had been training with him for the last hour.

"He is here," the Saiyan Prince stated. "Now, let us see what this creature can do. Come Trunks."

A minute later Vegeta, Mirai Trunks, Son Gohan, Piccolo, Tarble, the child Trunks and Son Goten were leaving the building. The Androids Seventeen, Eighteen and Mirai Eighteen had already been outside somewhere in the town when **it** happened. They all flew off to confront the monster and stop it.

Tapion however had left even before he did, looking for his enemy. He knew his flute and the influence it had over Hildegarn was the best way to at least slow the monster down and stop the destruction.

xxxxxxx

_Original GT Timeline, 23 years after the Cell Games_

The time-machine with Bulma inside appeared, after what were only seconds for her, once again right in front of the Capsule Corp building.

She opened the machine and stepped outside. It was nearly the exact same spot like she had been before... good. But what time, what year?

The answer was, she was exactly where she intended to be. It was three months earlier that Son Goku had left together with Shenlong after the battle with the Shadow Dragons. A short time later happened the battle against the mind-controlled Android 18.

But of course Bulma had no way to know that. The only way for her to find out was to ask the residents of this time.

As she walkned towards the building, she had a feeling of deja vu. It was just like the last timeline she had visited, with her and Trunks knocking on their own door.

And like the last time she couldn´t help to be nervous. What would be awaiting her here?

She range the bell of the door. After about a minute of waiting, she saw that it was being opened.

The one who had opened the door, she realized then a moment later, was someone who looked like a younger version of herself. Had she accidentally travelled into the past instead of the future? she asked herself for a split second. But then, at a closer look, she saw that this girl wasn´t her. She was looking very similar, but she wasn´t the same.

This was... her daughter?

"Mom?" Bra asked as he saw her. "What has happened to you. How became your hair suddely like this?" she asked, looking at Mirai Bulma´s ponytail.

"I..." Bulma wanted to say, "I am Bulma Briefs," she continued after a short pause. But not the one you probably know. I am..."

"Bra, who is on the door?" Mirai Bulma could her own voice coming from behind her alternate timeline´s daughter.

The other Bulma was looking at her with an open mouth as she recognized her.

"I am from Trunks timeline," that was the first thing that she said to explain who she was and her situation.

xxxxxxx

Meanwhile back in the timeline she had just left, the Z-fighters were confronting the monster Hildegarn - well, at least half of it.

Had it been a normal physical creature, it should not even have been alive at this point. Since it was only one half of a being that had been cut apart. But Hildegarn was something else. He was a demon.

The Beast had already destroyed an entire line of houses before they had arrived. People were fleeing in panic all over the streets and many had without a doubt been crushed under the collapsed buildings.

Tapion, who was the first to arrive, had tried to stop him by using the hypnotic powers of his music. Just like he had done thousand years before. But it had only worked for a short time.

Vegeta, Son Gohan, Piccolo and the Androids had powered up to nearly their full strength. Trunks had for the beginning transformed into a SSJ2 and the two children had also taken their Super Saiyajin forms.

They were holding the monster at the defensive quite easily. Their power as easily more than enough to deal with **half** of Hildegarn. The only problem was that their opponent was constantly dissolving his physical form and remanifesting himself at another place. That made it nearly impossible for them to land a really damaging attack.

"If somebody had told me that I would be fighting a half monster in West City some day," Seventeen commented. "This is strange even by our standards."

Hildegarn was just crushing a car under his feat. Vegeta and Tarble both fired a ki blast at him, but he just once again disappeared and retook his physical form a few hundred meters away from the last place he had been.

"It is nearly impossible to fight him if he is the whole time disappearing on us," Son Gohan called out.

"Tarble, stay back," Vegeta told him. "You are not ready for an opponent like this yet. The same goes for you Trunks, Goten. Be careful." He was just getting an idea how dangerous Hildegarn really was. If this was his strength now, how powerful was he in his complete form?

He didn´t came to finish this thought, since Hildegarn´s tail landed a his on him that Vegeta barely managed to block with both hands. But it still managed to push him a few meters backwards and he crashed into the wall of the closest house.

The monster continued his rampage by breaking apart a highway-bridge with his legs. To everyone´s luck, anyone who had been on that road had already fled before.

Tapion was now watching the destruction and the carnage silently. He knew he was not strong enough to do anything to stop even Hildegarn´s under half.

The Z-fighters on the other hand were fighting the monster and even seemed to have the upper hand. If he only managed to hold the upper half inside his body, they had a good chance to win.

But how many innocent people would die until then? How much of this city would be destroyed?

"Trunks," Tapion called out to the Z-fighter closest to him. "You said you have lived through this before. How did you do it? How did you stop him the last time?"

For a few moments, Trunks froze. His eyes were looking at nothing. His thoughts seemed to be drifting off. For a short moment.

"Tapion..." he spoke hesitatedly, "... I... have you not already figured it out?" he was looking at the counterpart of his old friend. "Why do you think I am wearing your sword?... I have **killed** you," Trunks said to him.

Both of them were looking at each other in silence.

The younger Trunks was only a few hundred meters away from them, fighting along Son Goten and Son Gohan.

It was in this moment that Hoi decided to strike.

* * *

**This is the tragic angle of this arc. The good version of Trunks had killed Tapion and saved his world in the process, the evil one, The Priest, couldn´t do it.**


	28. Chapter 28: False Hope

**Chapter 28**

_The World of the Kaioshin, far away from Earth_

They - the two Supreme Kaios of this universe and their servant Kibito - had been, at least as good as they could, following the latest events and their consequences. Not only at the planet Earth, but also the effects everywhere in known space.

As good as they could... But of course The Priest with his ability to travel to other dimensions and timelines that was far superior to their own, had places where he was even out of there reach.

"Another menace had awoken," the younger Kaioshin stated, "and once **again** it is on Earth," he commented. "I sometimes have to ask myself what is it about this planet? When ever a universal disaster happens it is always there."

"That is nothing," the older one replied. "Have you not felt it? As this Dark Priest had returned to our universe the last time, from wherever he went, he had brought yet another God Ki user with him, one with a similar dangerous and with a equally evil aura like himself. Whatever has just awakened on Earth, it is a minor threat compared to this."

"We will have to deal with both anyway... we **all** will," he said, refering to their allies on that planet. Maybe we should go to Earth and warn them **now**."

"Don´t worry, we will. As soon as we **can**," the old Kaioshin told him. "As you might remember we also have a very serious problem here to take care of. **He** will arive here very soon. And we will need to do everything we can to convince him not to cause even more trouble."

"Yes, I know," the younger one responded.

"Good, then calm down and try to be as diplomatic as possible. They can be here any moment."

"They are already here," a voice interrupted them.

A couple of figures had just appeared a short distance from them.

"Lord Whiz," the young Kaioshin greeted them, "and Lord Beerus. How good to see you again."

"Kaioshin," Beerus replied simply.

"And you," he said, looking at the older Kaio, "as I see you are also free again. Tell me, how has it been spending millions of years trapped inside a cursed sword?"

"Quite comfortable actually," he answered, "but a bit boring." He didn´t seem to let the situation outnerve him. at least at the outside, he was completely calm.

Of course they both knew that they had much reason to be nervous with Beerus destructive and unpredictable nature. He was the God of Destruction after all... at least the one of their universe.

"Well, we originally wanted to come here to ask you about something called the Super Saiyajin God," Beerus stated. "But then we took a look at the universe around us. It seems there are a few other things we should talk about. First of who are these two new sources of dark Divine Ki?"

xxxxxxx

_Earth, West City_

Hoi had been waiting for this chance. Watching the ongoing fight from a hiding place, he had put his eyes on the fighters who were challenging Hildegarn... and in **first line** of course on Tapion.

Then at one point, Tapion and the warrior closest to him seemed distracted somehow. He made his move.

xxx

Tapion had registered what Trunks had just told him. Of course it did have to had been like that. How else would they have been able to come out of this situation in the desolated world Trunks had described where he came from?

But was there a chance **here**, in this world, to actually win? Maybe there had always been only one possibility to end this, to prevent even more deaths.

Had they truly a chance to beat Hildegarn? Or were they deluding themselves if they thought that?

He remembered how many hundreds... even thousands of warriors had already tried it on his home planet... and they all had been all had fooled themselves into thinking they had a chance against the monster. And they all paid for it.

But he also knew by now that Trunks and the others were incredible far above any fighter the planet Konas had ever seen. He could feel their incredible energy. But would it be enough? he asked himself. Enough to end this quickly without further victims. His **fear** would let go of him, a fear that every native of Konas knew all too well.

And even if they **could **do it, how many more innocents more would die until that point? But he could prevent it all right here. All he needed to do was... **die**.

Maybe it was truly better if they ended it now, he thought for a short moment. Just like the last time, he said to himself... like it happened in Trunks world.

What did he have to loose anyway? All what he had known and cared for was long gone. In every minute Hildegarn, even only half of him was on the loose, more innocent people were put into danger.

He caught himself how he actually considered it. To tell Trunks to kill him one again and end it all here and now. But somehow he could not open his mouth.

What if they **could** do it? Something in him refused to die for no reason.

And beside that, he didn´t really want to put Trunks who had quickly become a friend - both versions of him - through this. Not if it didn´t need to be.

xxx

Hoi came out of his hiding place. He moved with speed that seemed impossible for his age and short stature. But his magic was able to augment also his physical strength, for a short time at least.

They hadn´t noticed him yet, good.

He concentrated his powers and sent them out to his enemy. Hoi´s magic struck Tapion in the back.

Nobody had noticed him until it was too late. They all had been paying attention to the creature in front of them, not to dark corners. Just as he had planned. Nobody was able to do something in time.

"Tapion," Trunks called out as he noticed his friend breaking down in pain.

Seconds later his reaction was mirrored by his younger counterpart who also saw what had just happened.

The younger Trunks was flying towards them, Son Goten a few meters behind him.

He landed and kneeled down next to his friend.

"Are you alright Tapion?" he asked concerned.

They wanted to help him, but it was already too late. They all saw and sensed a dark essence leaving his body.

"No," Tapion whispered as he noticed what happened.

His physical state wasn´t the problem. It has never been. His life had never been in danger from the attack. It had not truly been his body that Hoi had assaulted after all. It was his mind. **That** was the part that needed to be weakened for the captured essence to be released.

Hildegarn was free. The presence that had left Tapion´s body now gathered around the other half of the monster that was already terrorizing the town and merged with it, becoming one again.

Instead of only the bizarre looking under half, it was now Hildegarn in his full body standing before them. His power, they noticed, had also skyrocked as he became complete again.

The monster was larger than even most of the multistory building around him. While most of Hildegarn´s body was dark green, his head was white, giving it a ressemblence to a humanoid skull, with glowing red eyes. His appearance alone would be enough to scare the most normal warriors.

The level of energy he was radiating right now was gigantic, even by their standards. One to one maybe Vegeta after his power up by the Kaioshin had a chance. But the rest of them?

"Yes, yes, after all this time he is free again. Hildegarn will destroy you all," Hoi shouted for all of them to hear. Obviously having given up his carefulness in his moment of triumph. "The universe will be mine. Show them your power," he exclaimed.

At his command the monster crushed another house. He avoided attacks by Piccolo and Android 18 and smashed both of them out of his way. With his full body, it seemed he had not only gotten more powerful, but also smarter.

Being complete again, Hildegarn´s rampage now only intensified.

Mirai Trunks knew there was **one** thing he could do right now.

He appeared right in front of Hoi.

"It is over for **you**," he called out... and without a moment of hesitation blasted him away. "You have gone too far a long time ago," he stated.

Trunks was looking at the place where Hoi had been standing a moment before. Would the loss of his master make Hildegarn less dangerous? Or would he now turn into an even more uncontrollable threat? He had to admit he wasn´t sure about it. Would it even make a difference?

At least Hoi himself would never harm anyone ever again.

"Yeah, you got that bastard," his younger self who was still standing close to Tapion said to him.

"Yes, I did," he repeated quietly. Mirai Trunks turned around to Kid Trunks and Tapion. "But will it change something?" he asked in the direction of his old friend.

"I am not sure," Tapion admitted. "Hildegarn was created as a creature of pure destruction, even without Hoi´s directions, so probably not."

"I thought so," Trunks replied. He was was looking in the direction where the monster was right now fighting with Vegeta and Android 17, who were both dodging several of his blows.

Yes, he saw, killing Hoi had probably not made much of a difference. Hildegarn had been and still was, a raging killing-machine.

But at least they got rid of the smaller threat. Whatever happened, Hoi would not lead him to other planets to wipe out their population for his insane vision of a universe that belongs only to his race. Whatever damage the monster would cause from now on, there would at least be no genocidical plan behind it.

xxx

Hildegarn opened his mouth and spat a stream of ki energy into the air that nearly hit Seventeen, who barely managed to avoid it.

"It seems this thing is far more dangerous than we thought," the Android called out.

"If he had fired **that** to the ground, he could have wiped out at least the half city," Gohan, who had just come up again, said in shock.

xxx

"Did you see that?" Son Goten asked where he the two Trunks and Tapion where still standing.

"We need to stop him," Kid Trunks said to the others.

"Do you... do you think you can do it?" Tapion asked insecure.

"He is far more powerful than I had ever feared," Mirai Trunks admitted. "But we all have grown very strong in the last months. Together at least we will take him down."

His father might even have a chance by himself, he knew. The problem was Hildegarn´s ability to dissolve himself and reappear wherever he wanted. How do you fight an enemy who does not even have physical mass half the time?

"Yes, trust us Tapion," the younger Trunks told him. "We will win."

"We will," the older Trunks confirmed. "Gohan, Father, Seventeen," he shouted upwards to the others. "We should all get him at the same time. Prepare your attacks and wait for him to take full form."

Like before Hildegarn was dissolving into his fog like essence and reappearing somewhere else again and again. Not even existing as solid matter half the time.

"Maybe we should first try to get him away from the town," Son Gohan suggested.

They all knew their energy could cause terrible collateral damage. But so would letting Hildegarn continue his rampage for any longer.

Android 17 finally made the decision for them. He flew closer to Hildegarn and fired a ki blast right at the side of his head.

"Hey you," he shouted at him, "yes you, you overgrown freak. You think you can beat me? You think you have a chance? I am Android 17. Come if you think you can deal with me. I will tell you something, I have already seen more scary monsters than you. You know something? I will wish the floor with you. Come here if you are not too **scared** of me," he yelled

Hildegarn spat another wave of ki energy at him, another that Seventeen also easily evaded and he himself fired another weak ki blast at the enemy. That hit him square, but of course without noticable effect.

But this had of course never been his intention. Like the Android had obviously planned it, the monster started to move in his direction, to follow him as he slowly started to fly out of the city area. He was leading him away.

18 was taking a place right next to her brother. She as well was hitting the creature with a few light attacks, but was not trying to do any real damage... yet.

"You know Seventeen, of all your stupid ideas, this one might actually get the job done," she remarked.

"Hey, it isn´t stupid since it actually works. What is truly stupid is your constant complaining while **I** have to do everything," he replied.

"Stop your squabbling you two," Vegeta shouted at them, "and better start to concentrate on the enemy."

"If you say **so** Vegeta," 18 responded, still not quite serious. She truly didn´t know why she should take advice from a guy who had the habbit of playing around in nearly every battle whenever it looked as if he had the upper hand.

One thing was sure as far as it came to her. She would certainly never let the idiot live it down that he was the one who let Cell absorb her, Eighteen thought by herself.

"Okay 17, you win this time," she told her brother. "But **only** because we got interrupted," she commented, sounding a bit playful.

18 knew she was right now acting more like she would have a few years ago, before her marriage with Krillin. Back when she had still been `on the road´ with Seventeen, as you could call it. In old times.

She wasn´t quite sure however if that was a good sign right now or a bad one.

"Vegeta has a point," Seventeen stated, "let us deal with that guy first. We can finish our discussion later. But like you said, for the moment **I** win." He grinned.

xxx

"They **are** doing it," Gohan said to the two Trunks and Son Goten who had just arrived next to him. "They are getting him out of the city."

"Get ready everyone," Mirai Trunks told them.

They all were concentrating their energy, preparing their attacks. Vegeta and Piccolo were doing the same thing at the other side of the battlefield. They were all waiting for the right moment.

Hildegarn had just passed the city´s border. Only a few more seconds.

xxxxxxx

Not all of them were directly involved in the fight. The two who stayed out of it and were in a greater distance to the battlefield were Tarble and Mirai 18.

Both of them kept some distance to **each other** as well. Or more precisely he kept his distance from **her**. Like the others, he knew about her story by now and what she as responsible for.

Tarble had to admit, he was thankful to her for bringing him out of Bojack´s brig, but he had to agree with the others. It was good possible that it had all been part of some kind of plan. So aside from his general gratitute for freeing him he knew better than to trust her.

And he knew just how dangerous she was. Like all the others here she was far above even the Legendary Super Saiyajin level. Well, maybe she was not **that** far above it like some of the other were.

In the moment, **both** of them were staying out of the battle like he saw. He because his brother Vegeta had told him to do it and he knew, as much as he hated to admit it, that he was far too weak to even be a help. No, he would only be in the way.

She however?... she had no real reason to stay out of the fight by all he knew.

But the others had right now their hands full with the monster that was rampaging through the town and nobody had really the time to pay attention to her.

"Hey," he called out to her, "don´t you think you could do something to help as well?"

Mirai 18 turned towards him.

"I am not as strong as the others," she replied. "You know that. I am still way behind my counterpart and her brother. I don´t think I can do anything to help," she told him.

"And that means you won´t even **try**?" he asked her.

"It is not as if you are the one to talk here," she said, reminded him that he was not fighting either.

"Don´t come me like that," he yelled. "We both know the difference between you and me. I would be complately useless in that fight, but you..."

"The difference between you and me?" 18 suddenly giggled. "Well, it would be good for you to remember that little man."

Tarble saw that her expression had now turned into a devilish grin. He realized that she was only been mocking him until now.

They had been right about her. She wasn´t fighting with the others because she had **no interest** to help them.

And he realized that he himself wasn´t exactly in a safe situation. If Mirai 18 came to the idea to attack him, he would be completely helpless.

Unknown to him however Eighteen had completely different thoughts on her mind. She for her part was quite sure now that The Priest was behind all what was happening here. That meant her time with the Z-fighters was coming to an end.

Well, it was fine as long it lasted.

xxxxxxx

"Now," Piccolo yelled to the others.

They all unleashed their attacks nearly at the same time. Just as Hildegarn was about to threw another attack at Seventeen, who was still purposely playing the bait. Like the Android had planned it.

Trunks Burning Attack, Son Gohan´s and Son Goten´s Kamehameha, Vegeta´s Big Bang attack, Eighteen´s Infinity Bullets and many others.

And all of them found their target. Hildegarn and the entire area he was standing on were caught in the center of a giant explosion. Fire filled the landscape around it.

Seconds later, as the blinding light had waned down and they could use their eyes again, they saw a crater just outside of the city and in it´s center Hildegarn´s lifeless body.

Their `other senses´ were telling them the same thing. They could not longer feel any energy coming from their fallen enemy.

xxxxxxx

_Somewhere else on Earth_

During all what had happened however, they were the whole time being observed. Not however with regular eyes or senses.

The Priest and his group of allies were hundreds of miles away. Demigra was standing next to him, together with Super 17 and the newly awakened Demon Buu. Both of them were under his influence. His magical energy was flowing both their bodies and their minds.

A few meters behind them were the two herans Zangya and Bido. They were still free of his control, mostly because neither Demigra or The Priest had bothered with them. Not when so many more `interesting´ candidates were around.

This two were doing their job anyway, mind-control or not.

They all were hiding their ki signatures so that they themselves wouldn´t be detected. While he and the others were using their own supernatural senses to follow the battle that was in this moment taking place.

The Priest had also sensed how Hildegarn´s energy had vanished in this moment. Yes, he remembered how a similar thing had once happened in his own world as well... one of the times **he** had faced Hildegarn back then.

And, like the Z-fighters probably were in this moment, he had let himself for a short time being fooled into thinking that it was over.

xxxxxxx

_West City_

The Z-fighters and Tapion were still looking at Hildegarn´s unmoving form.

They had won. At least that was the thought they had all on their minds.

But their relief lasted only seconds.

Hildegarn´s energy suddenly flared up again, stronger than ever before. The body was breaking open and a greenish light was shining out.

Then something broke out of and rose from the shattered form of the monster... something living. Hildegarn was not dead, they realized. He had gone through some sort of metamorphosis.

The new version of him was a light green creature with long thin horns on his head and wings, somehow ressembling a giant sized butterfly, a monstrous form of one at least.

What he left behind of his old self was now only an empty husk, an discarded old shell. Yes, ironically quite like a butterfly.

But nothing of that really mattered. What was truly important was that Hildegarn´s power had just grown by a large degree. Did they still had any chance to beat him?

Vegeta powered up to his limit. He had begann to charge his Final Flash by collecting ki in both his outstretched arms.

Hildegarn spread his new wings and lifted off into the air. Great, now their enemy could also fly, beside dis- and reappearing at will, Trunks told himself.

He saw in this moment that his father was trying something. It was the same technique he once used against Cell, after having trained it in the time-chamber.

Vegeta concentrated all his energy with his hands and fired. But once again Hildegarn´s form dissolved just before the attack hit him. The beam of the Final Flash vanished behind the horizon.

`No,´ the Saiyan Prince thought.

And the giant monster reappeared right beside him. One hit from his large claw smashed Vegeta down into the ground.

Hildegarn was just raising one foot to crush his downed opponent completely, but Mirai Trunks and Eighteen interfered. They fired their ki blasts at the same time and unbalanced the monster enough to keep the monster from trampling Vegeta. But otherwise their attacks showed no visible effect.

Once again Hildegarn flew up into the sky... and from above he spat down energy that send an entire forest area close to the town on fire.

"Can we still stop him?" Son Gohan questioned.

"Not without countless more victims and destruction," Piccolo replied. "He is probably already looking for the next place to wreck. We were lucky that we were at least able to get him out of the town."

"I am sorry, I have failed," Tapion said to them.

"It wasn´t your fault. It was Hoi, if he hadn´t attacked you," the Named replied. "At least Trunks had taken out that guy."

"But that won´t help us much to stop Hildegarn," Mirai Tunks

"I say we do it," Vegeta told them.

"The Super Saiyajin God Transformation?" Piccolo asked.

"Yes."

"There has to be a way we can stop him without it," Mirai Trunks argued.

"Not without thousands of more deaths and more cities destroyed," Vegeta responded.

"This is exactly what The Priest had wanted from the beginning," Trunks countered.

"I know. But do you truly think we ever had a chance to avoid it? Becoming this Super Saiyajin Gods is the only way we will ever have a chance against this Priest. You said it yourself, Fusions are too unstable and don´t hold long enough, not to mention that I hate the thought of it alone, the Super Android Project might still take years to complete.

And about your plan to get help from another timeline. There is no guaranty that your mother will even find the help she is looking for. Or that she will return in time to change something... and even if she did, you are a **saiyajin**. Could you truly live with yourself if you knew you survived only through the help of others? That you let them fight your enemies for you, when you had an alternative?"

"Is **that** this is all about to you," Mirai Trunks asked him now angrily, "your pride? Once again nothing but your goddamn ego? Just like back then against Cell?"

"Future me?" the younger version of himself asked him unsure as he saw him talking like this to his father.

"Is that true, do you just want to be the one to bring down The Priest?" Eighteen asked Vegeta sharply.

He had to hold back an angry reply. He reminded himself, 18 of all people **had** reason to mistrust him.

"No, that is not the reason," he said. "I had made a mistake with Cell. I let my pride and arrogance get the better of me and for that... I apologize for that Eighteen," he told her.

This took the others a bit by surprise. For Vegeta to suddenly apologize was... unusual at best. Especially for something what happened years ago. But they also knew that this was the source of a grudge the Android had against the saiyan that never truly vanished.

"But this here is not like that," Vegeta continued. "You know as good as me that The Priest is probably observing this entire battle here. If not from somewhere on this planet then maybe from the other side of the universe. But he **is** knowing what his happening here. By the strength our ki had you can sense it galaxis away. It would be impossible for him not to have noticed. If he is not **behind** it all from the beginning.

He will for sure use this as one of these `tests´ he wanted to put on us and then he can show up here at any time. And when this happens, I will rather face him as a Super Saiyajin God than like I am now."

They all were looking at each other, they knew about the chance that The Priest was indeed somehow involved in all this.

"By the way, where is Tarble?" Vegeta asked them. "I had told him to stay out of the fight."

"He did," Mirai Trunks replied. "He stayed a few miles out of the battlefield, in that direction."

"Yes and he is coming back," the younger Trunks added, pointing in the same direction where a figure was coming closer.

A second later Tarble had arrived next to them.

"Good that you are back brother," Vegeta addressed him. "We need you here for something."

"There is something you should know first. Eighteen has disappeared," he told them all.

"What are you talking about? I am right here," 18 replied.

"Not **you**, the other 18," he said. "It seems you were right about her."

The others looked at him now gobsmacked. Mirai 18, how could they just have forgotten about her? True, they truly did have other problems, but...

A few of them, in first line Seventeen, couldn´t help but also have a smile forming on their faces about hearing the exchange between 18 and him. But that only lasted a moment.

This was serious.

"What had happened?" Vegeta wanted to know.

"I saw that she was staying out of the fight," Tarble explained. "I called her out on it. Then she was only looking at me as if she wanted to kill me... and flew away."

"That is all?" Gohan questioned confused.

"She is probably returning to The Priest," Mirai Trunks suggested. "That means he is probably on this planet."

"Should we go after her?" this timelines 18 questioned.

"She is our smallest problem right now," Piccolo pointed out.

"We need to take care of this monster first, before it causes even more damage," Mirai Trunks said.

"And then we must probably expect The Priest showing up and jumping literally right into our lap," 17 added.

"Yes," Trunks admitted, "that too."

"The question is, what do we do now?" Vegeta asked them.

xxxxxxx

The Priest and his allies were still following the events.

What the Z-fighters didn´t know and had no way to, was that the new form of Hildegarn had not simply become stronger. In the moment he had changed, Lord Demigra who had combined his powers with the one of The Priest, had been reaching out to him.

The creature had fallen under the influence of the Demon and now Hildegarn had a new master... and he was stronger than ever before.

"Now, is the fight interesting?" Demigra asked him. "Does it meet your expectations?"

"To the most part yes," he answered. "But they have not yet unleashed the God Ki... yet. I am sure they will soon."

"Maybe we should already get involved. What do you think? Our presence might finally press them to do what you wanted all along," Demigra suggested. "We could just go there and tell them, create Divine Ki or we will kill you. Sure, it would be somewhat beneath higher beings like us, but it would be quick and effective. So why continue playing with them?"

"Maybe I like playing with them," The Priest responded sardonically. "But seriously. Yes, it would likely force them to do it. But it might also cause them to do something desperate to disrupt my plans. Or they might even decide in some kind of failed martyrdom that they rather go down fighting as they are than to endanger the rest of the multiverse.

Believe me, I know this people. It is better to let them think they still have some time until my return and the chance to prepare. If they **don´t** do it, then we can still come out and force the issue."

"If you think so," Demigra stated casually, not sounding as if he really cared one way or the other. After all with the Android Super 17, the Demon Buu and now this Hildegarn character, The Priest had already provided him with a group of very powerful servants.

If his plan should work out and he would manage to return the legendary Nameless God to this worlds, good. As long as they keep their word and leave Lord Demigra as overseer over these universes.

"The Divine Ki, in the hands of a skilled user, is able to defeat Hildegarn, even in his strongest form," The Priest stated. He should know that best, he thought.

He knew in at least one timeline Son Goku had killed him with his Dragon Fist. But in this world nobody knew this technique... and thanks to Demigra, this Hildegarn here was now stronger than that other version.

All what was left for them was the Godly Ki.

He remembered his last fight with Hildegarn in his own universe, if it could even be called that.

xxxxxxx

_The timeline of The Priest - years ago_

The young boy known as Trunks was sitting in a small space-ship that was circling the planet Earth.

The owner of said space-ship was standing right behind him. He was a green skinned alien with some superficial similarities to a Namek. With the exception of the different ears and the lack of antennas on his forehead.

Just like his student would be years later, he was clad in a black colored cloak.

He was a follower of the Nameless God, one of the Priests of the Supreme God of Destruction, whose faith had at least in some universes survived the countless generations.

This being had come to Earth nearly a year ago, after a long journey where he had searched many worlds in many different realities for a fitting candidate... for a student. Some of this `candidates´ who had failed him... and even a few of their worlds had felt his wrath if they had disappointed him all too much.

But now it seemed that he had found one who fit his expectations.

Trunks was the last survivor of the fighters of this planet. After his mentor, his mother, Tapion and even the Androids 17 and 18 who had in the last days been forced to become their allies, had perished, he had been left alone.

Until **he** had found him.

"Now Trunks," he said, "show me what you have learned."


	29. Chapter 29: Worst Case Scenario

**Chapter 29**

_"Now Trunks, show me what you have learned," _he heard the words of his teacher._  
_

The boy who was sitting in the lotus position before him started to gather and concentrate his powers. Yes, that was exactly what he would do, he thought.

The sword that was handed down to him from his friend Tapion was lying on the floor before him. He was looking at it for a few moments. Today he would end this, once and for all.

He stood up and walked towards the window that showed the sight of the planet Earth below them. It was a world he had learned to hate.

The powers that he was using were a combination of the ones he had learned from both of his mentors.

The first was Son Gohan, who had been like a older brother to him, who had practically helped to raise him. He was the one who had started to train him, who had thought him to control his ki.

Of course most of that only happened during the last months. In the years before Gohan had not really been his trainer, but in first line his friend and his `older brother´. Both his mother and Gohan had agreed that Trunks was actually too young to fight against the Androids. Only after the appearance of Hildegarn had he begann to train him seriously and that only out of sheer desperation.

This was another question that often gnawed at him. What if Gohan had agreed to train him earlier? Would it had made a difference? Against Hildegarn? Probably not. But maybe then Trunks would have had the strength to do what had to be done on `that day´. Or maybe he would still have failed. That was another question that would never truly be answered.

Hildegarn, it was his arrival that changed everything.

Gohan had always been fighting for the people on the world down below him. He had always been putting his life at risk, again and again... for** them**. Who had come back from his fights injured and beaten down more times than Trunks could remember.

And how did they thank him? He remembered this as well... all to well. They turned on his, because of something that was not his fault. It was at this point then Trunks had lost trust in the people he had once been meant to protect.

Why should he have cared about people who turned on their protectors so easily, who blamed them so quickly? Practicall all of West City had turned on Gohan and his mother over the release of Hildegarn. It didn´t matter that it was an accident. It didn´t matter that they had been purposely deceived by Hoi.

Of course a short time later they were all back to hiding behind Son Gohan, when they realized that they needed him more than ever before. Now that they had yet another monster attacking them. Both Gohan and his mother acted as if they had gotten over it very quickly and didn´t even talk about it anymore. They were back to helping their neighbors and `fellow citizens´ as his mother called it.

But Trunks **remembered** the incident. He never forgot... and he begann to realize that he **hated** this people with all his heart.

The second person he had learned from was his **new** mentor, who had found him when he was left completely alone. He had thought him an even greater power.

First off he continued what Gohan started and trained him as a even better fighter. He had build up on the foundation Son Gohan had laid and thought him more fighting-techniques and better and helped him gain better control of the ones he already knew.

The training under the Dark Priest, as he called himself, was harder and more extreme than his old one ever was.

But as well pushed himself harder than he had ever before, physically and mentally. He had already started to combine the fighting style and the metaphysical techniques he was learning from his new master with the lessons he had learned from Son Gohan. Much to his mentor´s approval. Since he wanted him to improve himself in any way he could.

Beside however he had recently given him something else. That gave him access to a completely new kind of power. The base of his new master´s own abilities... the Divine Ki. Of course it was not the same version that the Kaios and the other gods of this universe used. No, it was the power that was passed down to their cult from the Nameless God himself.

`Nameless God´, Trunks thought about the label even **they** were using for their master. The name he had been using when he had been present in this universe millions of years ago had been lost over the time.

It was actually said that he once had countless names, given to him from countless worlds. All of them once born out of either reference or fear... or **both**. But all of them had been forgotten over the time. Later only the fear of him remained, as a legend, a myth.

The remaining followers that still existed in their entire cluster of universes became less and less over the time. They died out, lost their faith over the generations or in some cases were killed in battles, mostly with the followers of the Kaios. But their faith **did** survive.

The term Nameless Gody itself became a symbol of fear... or in some cases reference.

Now after millions of years, only he, the latest Dark Priest and his new student Trunks remained, who had inherited the power.

But more importantly, his new mentor had thought him his philosophy, his faith. A faith that the young boy, over the course of the last months, had began to share. In opposite to most modern Gods of Destruction, who mostly just wiped out planets to make raw material for new one, The Nameless God was far more defined about who and what to destroy.

This was even more important than power because otherwise, without it, he would have no direction, no idea what to do with this power.

When the alien had found Trunks nearly two years ago, the boy had been broken. Everyone he had know and all what he cared about was gone... and to him it was all his own fault, because of his weakness. With one simple decision he could have saved everything, sacrificing one friend to save everyone else. He had never forgotten this... and it had broken him apart.

Not that many of these things had been worth saving in the first place, he thought. First of this had been his mindless dedication to protect the people of Earth, his trust in Gohan and his mother´s judgement and many other things.

That was this state that the Dark Priest had found him in. Trunks, a broken nearly twelve years old boy, filled with bitterness, desperation, anger, defeat and hatred. Ultimately it was ideal material for him to build up on.

Yes, he remembered, his new mentor had found him half dead after one foolish attempt to fight Hildegarn on his own. One that he - he didn´t even really know how - somehow survived.

The Dark Priest gave him shelter, help and training. But he also gave him new direction and purpose.

The cause of the Nameless God, as he learned, was the destruction of the unworthy... where- and whoever it was. It was a primary principle of the world, as his master said, whatever was not fit to exist was being wiped out. It didn´t matter if it was a single person, a group, a planet or even an entire universe.

In the beginning Trunks had not quite understood this. But then over the last two years, he had begann to understand.

Back when Hildegard had been freed he had not been worthy. He had failed, in more sense than one. It was not the fact that he had not been willing to sacrifice a friend, no it had been his failure to see the situation like it was and to act when he should have. He should have seen that his `mercy´... no, he thought, his cowardly refusal to do it, would not have saved Tapion, that he would have died anyway and his mother and Gohan with him, that Hildegarn would kill them all.

But he had been strong enough to **survive**, even when he had been on his own later. By living through all this and still be willing to fight, his new mentor had told him, he had proven that despite his earlier failings, he was still deserving of another chance to proof himself.

If he had given up or just died, the Dark Priest had said, he would not even have bothered with him and left him to his fate... and he was right, Trunks thought, knowing what he did now.

No, he remembered, what had held him back at that damned day wasn´t mercy or friendship, he remembered. It was a stubborn refusel to the the truth that was right before his eyes.

He had been weak and had be stayed that way, he would not have been worth saving.

But not anymore. Over the last two years, the young Trunks had made the beliefs of his mentor his own. Ironically it was the philosophy of the Nameless God, a God of Destruction that had brought him out of his misery and depression. It gave him answers.

The people on this planet, they were unworthy... and more than that. They were **worthless**. They spend their lives hiding behind people like Son Gohan, but didn´t hesitate to blame him for a moment if he failed somehow, knowing perfectly well that he won´t use his powers to fight back against them. Even if he easily could. And they refused to ever learn.

It had probably been the same way with Gohan´s father Son Goku and also with whatever hero came before **him**. Always fighting for them, never getting thanked... and discarded and forgotten as soon as something got wrong.

Gohan had not been weak, but he had been misguided, just like his mother. A genius like her, wasting the days of her life on scum, who spat in her face whenever thing turned sour. But they had refused to see that, that was the reason both of them were dead.

No, things like mercy, aid, protection and **survival** should be spared for the people who were worth it.

He concentrated on the world below him... directly at the monster that was still ravaging the planet´s surface. It was completely lying in ruins.

Beside Hildegarn himself there were also several million humans who had survived his rampage and years long attacks of the Androids before. Parasites, that was what they were. They meant less than nothing to him anymore... but that didn´t mean he would not gladly see them burn.

xxx

He remembered one of the times he and his mentor had been holding a meditation session to communicate with their master. Despite that the barrier was between them that was placed when the ancient Kais had closed their universes off, his powers were so great that at least mentally he was still able to reach his few remaining loyal followers... sometimes at least.

This time he had been able to speak with the master himself gained even more to him than most of the things he had learned from the Dark Priest. He remembered what their God had promised him. What he had offered was not just something simple like power or even revenge. But of course he would get this as well.

It was access to new worlds, higher and better worlds, as soon as the barrier between the universes was removed... worlds and realities that were different from this one and the chance to explore them and do his work there. A chance to leave all this here behind.

xxx

Trunks now unleashed his new God Ki that he had gathered, in form of a vast wave of energy that was heading in the direction of the planet... and Hildegarn. He felt how his attack came closer and closer, until it had finally found it´s target.

He didn´t need to be there to know what was happening. He felt the clash of energies when it reached the monster and Hildegarn was trying to hold it back for a split second. But it was nearly instantly overwhelmed.

Not only Hildegarn but the entire area around him vanished in a giant ball of fire. He felt the life energy of the creature perish. But that wasn´t the end. The blast continued to burry itself into the crust of the planet.

They were watching from their space-ship how Trunks former home-world was quickly breaking apart into burning debris.

"Good Trunks, very good," his mentor said to him. "It was time for us to leave this single world behind us and continue our mission on a far greater area."

xxx

A few years later his mentor died during one of their sparring matches on some random planet in one of the universes they traveled to... that brought the civilization on this world to extinction.

It was right this way. Despite the loss he felt, he accepted it. If you weren´t able to survive, then it was time for you to go, embrace death and make place for someone else. That was the Law of the Nameless God. This was the way the universe worked.

Or at least it should have been, until other so called gods like the Kaios perverted nature with their interference and petty rules. As they started to reward the weak, cowardly and stupid for being weak and called them `innocent´. If they were innocent, he asked, why did they turn on Son Gohan and his mother so easily?

No, the innocence the Kais preached was a lie. Just like the universe they had build up after their ancestors had banded together and banished his master was a lie.

He intended to be the one to end all this. He would do everything to make sure that the master would finally return to their worlds.

xxxxxxx

_Current timeline - Earth, close to West City_

Mirai 18 had meanwhile nearly arrived at the meeting place she had agreed upon with her brother a few months ago.

But as she arrived, the figure that waited for her was not quite what she had expected.

"Se... Seventeen?" she asked as she saw him.

"Yes," he replied without any emotion.

"You... you have actually reached it? The power... our full potential, the other form that The Priest had been talking about?"

"I have," he replied equally emotionless.

"But we had agreed to wait until I would be back before we make a move for that power. We wanted to reach the new form together," she reminded him. "Does that mean The Priest is dead?"

"No," he stated.

"But you wanted to kill him as soon as you would have reached this power."

"Killing The Priest?" he asked. "That is impossible. The masters orders forbid it," Super 17 stated.

Eighteen froze.

"What are you saying? What master?" This just couldn´t be.

What was going on with him? She and her brother, they served no one. They **had** no master. This was not simply a transformation, this was...

She didn´t even come to end that thought, because in this moment Super 17 started to move towards her.

xxxxxxx

_West City  
_

Six Saiyans, all of them with a pure heart. Five of them to give their energy in the ritual, one to receive the resulting Godly Ki... that was Trunks had told them he had seen in the recordings from other timelines.

The Super Saiyajin God ritual, that they were trying to perform now.

Like Vegeta had said it, what did they have to loose? This way they had at least a small chance. The Priest could show up any time... and knowing him, he probably will.

Without it, they weren´t even sure if they could beat Hildegarn. They were all easily able to feel the presence of the monster that was by now already a far distance away. He was moving in the direction of one of the other larger towns close to West City. They knew the monster had already found his next target.

And against The Priest they were helpless like newborn babies.

So what choice did they really have? They knew about the risk of doing exactly what The Priest wanted. But this way they would at least be able to fight back against him.

Yes, they had send the older version of Bulma to another timeline to ask the other versions of themselves, who had according to Trunks grown incredible powerful, for help. But there was not telling when exactly she would return. Of course there was also no 100% guaranty that she would be able to bring help.

The remaining question was who of them would go through the transformation first. For obvious reason they didn´t choose Trunks as the first candidate.

They knew about his insane plan to force Trunks to merge with him after all. So it was better to choose someone else.

For the moment Vegeta was the one who would be receiving the Godly Ki. After the power up from the old Kaioshin, he was the strongest out of them and he had more experience than Gohan.

They were standing in a circle around him, Mirai Trunks, Son Gohan, Tarble, Kid Trunks and Son Goten. Vegeta was standing in the center of the circle. All of them released their evergy at the same time. The ones under them who were able to become Super Saiyajins, transformed. The combined power that was built up became higher and higher.

For a few seconds nothing happened. Vegeta was standing in the middle of them, just like he had been before.

Then he began to change... his energy, his entire being, even his appearance. His black hair and his eyes had now turned into a pinkish red. The new aura that was surrounding him was glowing in the same color.

Mirai Trunks knew this appearance perfectly well. Vegeta had turned into a SSJ God. It had worked.

They could also not longer feel his father´s powerlevel. This was actually another proof that he had developed Divine Ki, normal people were not longer able to detect it.

xxx

From Vegeta´s point of view it was quite similar. He could feel the change in himself. In opposite to the others, he could sense his own power and he knew that it had grown to a level he would have never thought possible. But would it be enough.

"That is the Super Saiyajin God?" Tarble questioned.

"Yes it is. This is the transformation I have seen. It **has** worked," Mirai Trunks said.

"Now let us hope that it will be enough to make a difference," Piccolo stated.

"Against Hildegarn, yes. I am quite sure," Trunks repled. "But..."

"If it helps against The Priest is a completely different question," 17 finished his words.

"Yes."

But it was at this point that things were starting to turn bad... **really** bad.

With his new transformation, he could not only use God Ki, he had also gained the ability to sense it. He noticed the danger a few seconds before the others.

"Watch out, they are coming," he shouted to the others.

A few of them were confused for a moment, but some like Mirai Trunks, Piccolo or the Android Twins had a very good idea what he was talking about. 17 and 18 in first line because Trunks has talked to them about his worries more than once.

Moments later a portal appeared in a short distance from them... and someone stepped out of it. Now **all** of them were sure what Vegeta had meant. It was the worst possibility they could have imagined.

"I see you have finally decided and made the next step," The Priest greeted them. "It is good to see you all again," he told them mockingly.

Behind him were standing a line of more figures. A large man who was obviously a demon. None of them could feel any energy from him, none except Vegeta. Two of Bojack´s former warriors and the last one was a small pink skinned being with red eyes.

Mirai Trunks however recognized him. It was the Demon Buu. The same one who would have been awoken by Babidi a few months ago if circumstances had been different.

"So you **where** close by, only waiting for us to do this," Vegeta stated. He didn´t sound too surprised.

"I see you have actually been expecting me to do this... and you still went through with the transformation," The Priest replied, sounding a bit intrigued.

This statement let Mirai Trunks and some of the others look at Vegeta a bit insecure. It would not be the first time that he took stupid risks, they remembered.

"Of course, we both know it is the only way how we can even defend ourselves against you," he responded. "Even if we had **not** done it, are we truly to believe that you would not simply have come out of your hiding place and forced us to do it anyway?"

"You have to admit, this entire business with Hildegarn was quite your style," 17 pointed out. "Whenever a powerful enemy appeared during the last months, you were usually either behind it or at least involved. Why should it be different this time?"

"And plainly said, we are sick of playing your game," Piccolo stated.

The Priest was looking at him and the Android. Then a smile came across his face.

"You are very smart," he commented, "and this is still the case. As you know it is my counterpart who I truly want to become a SSJ God. So you won´t leave this place until you have performed the ritual another time."

Damn, Vegeta thought. He had been wrong. This was far **worse** than anything they had imagined. For the first time he actually got an impression just how powerful the counterpart of his son truly was. But that wasn´t the only problem. The figure next to The Priest, he was also a God Ki user. He couldn´t be sure, but by his first impression, he was similar dangerous.

Vegeta was looking in the face of his son, that was worn by their most dangerous enemy.

"Why did you even let this information slip in the first place?" 18 asked The Priest. "We know that my counterpart had been working for you this whole time. If she had not told us about your interest in Trunks, we would not have never hesitated so long."

"That is a good question," he said. "It is a bit hard to explain. You could say, I wanted you to know the possible consequences of your choice. Let us say I wanted Trunks to know the same desperation as I once did. If we were to become one being he should be as close to my mindset as possible."

"You mean you wanted to break me. So that it would be easier to dominate my mind," Mirai Trunks commented.

"That is a quite crude and simplistic way to say it," The Priest replied. "But essentially it is a way to see it," he admitted. "The more challenges you face, the more you go through, the easier it will be to convince you that my way is the right one."

"You can wait long for that," Trunks told him.

"Oh, I don´t need to convince you in the usual way," The Priest stated. "All I need is to weaken your resolve enough, so that **my** personality will be dominant when we fuse."

"We **won´t** fuse," he denied.

"Do you really think that I don´t have methods to force you if things came hard to hard?" his double asked. "You know, we only need to merge for a short moment for my plan to succeed. But why stop with that? As much as you want to deny it, ultimately we are two versions of the same person," The Priest reminded him.

"You know, there was a time when I had been thinking not much different from you, a long time ago. But my life had thought me several very hard lessons since then. Lessons that I tried my best to replicate with the challenges I placed on you during the last months. With reasonable limitations of course. Otherwise nothing would be left of your planet by now," he commented.

"And what were those challenges supposed to teach me?" Mirai Trunks asked.

"That you are wasting your time," The Priest replied. "Like Son Gohan did."

"Don´t even say his name," Trunks hissed. "He would be ashamed of what you have become."

"Of course he would. He was blind, misled," The Priest stated. "He spend his entire life and sacrificed everything protecting the ones who were not worth protecting.

Do you know what happened after we accidentally released Hildegarn because Hoi deceived us? The same people he protected every day literally spat at him. They had rotted together in a mob, insulting and attacking him, his and mother´s own `neighbors´ here in West City. Isn´t that funny? They would have probably killed him if they had the power to do it.

Oh and mother, the woman who spend her entire family´s fortune to supply thousands of people with food and clothes? Who made countless inventions to make their lives more bearable? She was nothing to them as soon as something didn´t went in their favor. Of course both of them got over it, being the `noble´ and `heroic´ persons they were and both were killed, trying to protect the same people who had cast them out just a few months before."

They all were listening to his explanations. The most frightening thing was, most of them could understand where he was coming from. Even if they would never accept his conclusions.

Could the same also have happened in his own world? Mirai Trunks asked himself.

"And do you know what the most `funny´ thing is?" The Priest asked him with a bitter smile. "I think you can guess. They were only listening to Hoi so easily because he had told them the story about Tapion and they hoped to find with him another defender for the people of Earth," he said sarcastically.

"Let me see, what happened to Gohan in your world?" he asked.

"Shut up," Mirai Trunks called out.

"Oh yes, Hildegarn was never fully released since you were able to do what I was too weak for, but he still found a way get himself killed."

"The Androids killed him."

"You mean he run headfirst into a battle he knew he couldn´t win. All that for the sake of a few people who would have turned on him just as easily at another day."

"That is **enough**," Vegeta interrupted them. "Stop this mind-games. If you want to fight, do it."

"You mean you would rather let the fists talk, `father´? If you insist. That suits me too," The Priest answered.

They both moved at each other, with a speed that even Z-fighters found it hard to follow. After the first few moments Vegeta was already getting the impression that this maybe had not been a good idea.

Less than 20 seconds later he was completely sure that he was outmatched. This time he didn´t let himself get blinded by arrogance like in so many other battles before.

The Priest´s power and his experience with the God Ki was just too much.

His opponent kneed him in the gut and then landed a hit in his face that forced him backwards.

"As you see father, it is not enough," The Priest said to him, "and my allies have not even interfered yet. We could kill you all easily. But you know this is not what I want."

In this moment another figure was approaching. It was coming closer quickly, but they could feel any ki. That gave them a good idea who it was. As the newcomer had arrived however, they saw that it were actually two.

Mirai 18 was struggling in the arms of a large man who had a great ressemblence to her brother.

Trunks however had a look of complete shock on his face as he saw the man.

"No," he heard himself whispering and took a step backwards.

"I guess that is the Super Android form," the 17 from the present stated. He was hiding his own fear slightly better. The situation had already been bad enough.

"What have you done to my brother?" Mirai 18 shouted at The Priest.

"Yes what?" he replied. "Do you really think I have not noticed you two plotting against me? You can hardly blame me to do what I had to do and being quicker than you."

"You have turned him into a slave," she called out. "He would rather be dead than this."

"And I would have **really** liked to do him this favor, but sadly I couldn´t effort to loose two of my strongest allies. So I turned him into an offer to Lord Demigra instead," he turned to the Demon standing next to him, "an ally who is truly trustworhy."

Not that he really completely believed that. But it couldn´t do harm to let him believe that he was completely trusted for the moment.

"By the way Lord Demigra, I have another gift for you. If you would please take control of her as well," The Priest suggested.

"Of course my friend. Who am I to refuse something like this," the Demon responded.

They all could see the magical energy that was for a short moment lighting up in Mirai 18´s eyes and surrounding her like an aura, before she stopped struggling and wordlessly took position next to her transformed brother.

"This should show you even better how absolutely helpless you are," The Priest addressed the Z-fighters. "If we want we can turn your own allies against you. We can destroy you all and we don´t even need to do it ourselves. I only want one thing from you right now... continue with the ritual. If you don´t, we will just force you to stay here and watch how Hildegarn destroyes one part of this world after the other, like I once did...

amd then, after it is over, we will end you as you are now. Or you can at least give yourself a small fighting chance. Make your choice now."

The Z-fighters were looking each other in the eyes.

"We will do it," Trunks said after a few seconds.

xxxxxxx

A few miles outside of the city, a short time later, another portal was opening. This one was larger and needed far more energy than the one The Priest had opened a short time ago.

It was for a good reason because this one connected not only two places in space, but different dimensions and times. And another group of people was appearing.

Two of them were Whiz and Beerus. But they were not the ones from this universe. Behind them were standing two versions of Vegeta and Son Goku and 17 and 18, both of them in their own Super Android forms.

The last two members of the group were Mirai Bulma, who was just returning from her mission, more successful than she had ever thought possible... and another Bulma.

"Is this the right place?" their Son Goku asked.

"Yes, this seems to be the same timeline where Bulma came from," Whiz told him. "And what is even more important, I can sense the enemy we have been talking about very close. He is here, in this universe and on this planet, only a few miles away actually."

"The Priest, he is here?" Mirai Bulma asked.

"Yes he is," he replied. "The Dark Priest who had been terrorizing the multiverse for several years now. He is obviously the same being you have told us about... and he is a counterpart of your son. I am sorry for you."

"I... I have known this for a while now," she said.

The second Bulma who was with them however looked far more distraught. For her this information was still relative new.

"If he is here that means we have found him very quickly, right?" Son Goku stated.

"Yes we did, but the situation is even worse than we have thought. There is someone else here," Whiz answered.

"What do you mean?" 17 asked.

"Another old enemy, who is in his own way just as dangerous."

"So he is here as well. This is even more interesting than I have thought," Lord Beerus commented. "But first I think we should deal with them." He pointed to Seventeen and Eighteen.

"Oh yes, they don´t possess Divine Ki after all," Whiz replied. "I nearly forgot that given how strong they became. We need to do something about this first. Otherwise they can not help us. They would be too much of a danger."

"Moment..." 17 questioned. "We, a danger?"

"We came here with you because both you and Bulma here told us that we need to stop a threat to all realities," 18 reminded him. "We took this forms again," she gestured to their Super Android bodies, "and left our families behind because we wanted to help. And now you say we are too dangerous?"

"It is true," Whiz answered, "we recruited this team to stop the Dark Priest. But that was before we knew that Demigra would be here. He is a demon who possess the ability to influence and control practically everyone who doesn´t possess Divine Ki. That means if you go like you are now, you would very likely be turned into weapons against us. Like things are now, I see only one solution if you two want to help."

* * *

This is now chapter 29.

The group that arrived at the end of this chapter are the same 17, 18, Vegeta and Son Goku who featured in the first three chapters of this story + the Beerus and Whiz of their reality. As it was shown in a later scene, this two had found out about The Priest´s activities and wanted to collect a team to stop him.

With this it is the beginning of the final battle of this story.


	30. Chapter 30: Unexpected Results

**Chapter 30  
**

They were doing what they had to.

They had repeated the ritual... two more times now. For the second time it was Son Gohan who was receiving the Divine Ki.

All of them knew that it was Trunks who The Priest truly wanted to become a SSJ God. So they feared that if they would take him next, he would not allow them to repeat the process a third time.

The Priest and his allies were just standing there and letting it happen. Neither of their groups had said anything about it.

Their enemies just let them continue without a word. The Priest even smiled knowingly as they started the ritual for Son Gohan.

Even with three SSJ Gods their chances against this group of opponents were not all too good. If they worked together, they could have probably brought down The Priest, if he was alone. But with his allies... It was practically impossible.

They were not even completelly sure how strong exactly some of this people were. But it was clear how bad their chances were.

The Z-fighters had been taking a short break of a few minutes to recover the energy that they had used for the first two turns of the ritual. This wasn´t a decision they made lightly.

They knew that in every minute they wasted Hildegarn came even closer to attacking another city. But if they drained themselves out to allow Trunks, Vegeta and Son Gohan their transformation, they would be even more helpless than they already were.

The ritual for Trunks was now just coming to it´s end. Like Vegeta did a few minutes before he instantly felt the subtle differences. He could now also feel the powerlevel of The Priest and of his mysterious new partner.

For the first time he actually had a real idea how strong his opponent was. The powerlevels of both of them were frightening.

But if he was honest he was even more afraid of an enemy whose power he still could not sense. Ever since he had seen this form for the first time in the recordings, the Super Androids were something that had left a remaining impression on him. Simply said, as much as he hated to admit it, he was plainly scared of them.

"I see you are finally there where you were always meant to be Trunks," The Priest commented. "I guess you are now wanting to fight Hildegarn, to crush that creature under your foot once and for all. I can understand that. If I were in your position, I would probably feel the same. Well, to honor our `agreement´, I will let you."

"You will let me fight him?" Mirai Trunks questioned.

"Of course, this was the purpose of this entire ritual after all, wasn´t it?" The Priest stated smugly. "**You** can go. Of course since me and my allies here have nothing to do otherwise, we will probably spend our time with your team here while you were going it," he said with a smile. "It is **your** choice."

Trunks turned around to the others and gave them a worried look. He knew Hildegarn would cause even more harm if he didn´t go now, but he didn´t want to leave the others alone with **them**.

"Go," Vegeta told him," we will deal with this guys."

"Yes do it," Son Gohan confirmed," You need to stop this monster before it attacks another town."

"Don´t worry," 18 said to him, "we will be okay... not matter what happens." She gave him a reassuring smile, which he returned.

"Interesting," The Priest commented. "It seems you two have come closer to each other. Who would have thought? Quite ironic given the history we share on so many worlds. But not really **that** surprising if I think about it.

We will see how this will continue, right? You know the saying: `Live every day as if it is your last.´ Now this could very likely be the case for you as you surely know," he said in 18 and the other´s direction.

"It won´t because we will stop you," she replied.

"Really?" he asked. "So far, if I remember right, you have managed to do nothing than to play right into my hands from the beginning. All of your `victories´ had ultimately only been part of my plan to make your friend Trunks stronger and worthy to merge with me. What makes you think that something about this will change?"

"You should not be too confident," 17 spoke up. "Our attempts to unleash my and my sister´s full potential has made a lot of progress. We may not have reached this Super Form like your lapdog over there," he said, looking at the alternate Super 17, "but we are **far** more powerful than we have been before."

"17," The Priest responded casually, "I have known many versions of you through the dimensions... and I **know** when you are bluffing. You might have made some progress, but you are far away from being able to challenge me and you know it."

The expression of the Android told him all he needed to know.

"And even if you were," he continued, "my friend Demigra would be able to take you over just as easily as your counterpart."

"Trunks," 17 shouted now, "leave goddamnit. You have already wasted more than enough time. Why do you think I am trying to distract him? So that you can stay here and gawk?"

"Yes Trunks, leave. After all you have a job to do," The Priest told him with a tainting undertone. "You know, when we have become one being, I might actually consider continuing this relationship," he stated. "Your feelings will become mine after all. I am even willing to offer you the lives of your family and the rest of your friends. **If** you agree to fuse with me willingly."

Mirai Trunks seemed for a moment truly surprised by the offer.

"And what will happen to the rest of the universe?" he asked.

"Trunks Trunks, always worrying about creatures who are not worthy of your concern. That is the reason you suffer so much. The answer should be clear, shouldn´t it. This universe, yours and all the others will be **cleansed**. All the worthless beings who so far had been allowed to hide under the protection of the Kaios will be annihilated. But why should that be your worry? You know first hand how thankless and selfish the people of this world are.

Do I have to remind you about this entire Cell and Mister Satan story? You all thought and suffered for them and what happened? The first best fraud steals all the glory and they are calling **you** tricksters and impostors. Why should you continue to sacrifice yourself for people who couldn´t care less about you when I offer you a life with 18 at your side or any other woman you want, with friends who are **not** in danger of being killed every day? All you have to do is forget about the creatures who don´t care about you anyway."

For a short moment, Trunks admitted he was actually tempted. Not because he considered the humans and all the other beings in the universe worthless like The Priest did. He never would. But because he was given a chance to at least save his friends and family. If they had no chance anyway, would this not at least...

"That is enough," Vegeta interrupted them. "A true saiyan doesn´t make deals with his enemies to save his own skin."

"Ah, there is the hypocrite talking," The Priest countered. "If a true saiyan doesn´t make deals with his enemies `father´, why have you spend most of your life serving Freezer, only to finally team up with Son Goku and the Z-fighters **against** him... and then following Son Goku when **he** became a Super Saiyajin? Making deals with your enemies? You father have done nothing else in your life."

Vegeta watched him with clenched teeth.

"Maybe I have not been exactly a very good saiyan through my life," he admitted. "But I intend to change that **now**."

He fired a ki blast at The Priest, which he however swatted away with one hand. But Vegeta used the small distraction to attack him.

Son Gohan joined him and charged at their enemy as well. He attacked The Priest from the left and Vegeta from the front. Both were throwing punches that he was however able to either block or evade.

"Trunks, leave... now," Son Gohan shouted at him.

The Priest now fired himself a ki blast at Vegeta, one far higher charged than the small distraction Vegeta had shot at him. The blast however, to everyone´s surprise, was swallowed by one of his portals before it even reached it´s target.

The portal, along with the blast, reappeared right behind Vegeta and the attack hit him directly into the back instead of the front. Completely surprised by the manouver, the Saiyan Prince fell to his knees.

"Bastard," Gohan yelled as he saw what had happened.

xxx

The younger Trunks and Son Goten, having seen that a fight had broken out, were trying to use their Fusion technique. Kid Trunks admitted it freaked him out that the enemy was looking exactly like an older version of himself, but his parents and the others had explained the situation to him.

They tried to use the Fusion Dance. But before they could finish, Demigra who had noticed what they were doing interrupted them by firing a ki blast between them.

"Hey," Son Goten and Trunks yelled.

"I think we have here a few insects to deal with," he stated. "Get them," he ordered the Demon Buu who was also under his control.

This Buu was not in his fat form that was the result of absorbing two of the Kaioshins thousands of years ago, but in his natural state. The Priest had made sure to remove all natural parts inside Buu and resurrect him as the merciless weapon of mass destruction he was meant to be.

But before the demon could reach the two children, Piccolo and 17 had interfered to stop him.

xxx

Vegeta, who had come back to his feet, charged a Final Flash and fired it in the direction of The Priest who was still fighting Son Gohan.

This time however someone else stopped the attack. Super 17, at a short comment from Demigra, had intercepted the blast and let it hit him. They all watched as the Super Android absorbed the energy.

"Congratulations Vegeta. That was your name asn´t it?" the Demon Lord stated. "You have just succeeded in making my servant even stronger."

At the same time The Priest prepared another attack that he directed at Son Gohan.

"Burning Destruction Wave," he whispered the name of the technique.

The technique had from it´s movements some similarities with Trunks Burning Attack. But instead of a simply blast, it fired one wide and destructive wave of energy.

Gohan had no real chance to evade or stop the quick attack. He tried to block it, but was pushed backwards and finally overwhelmed. The energy of the ki wave unleashed right into his face.

xxx

Mirai Trunks who had already moved to do what he had been told turned around one last time as he noticed what happened. He could see that Gohan was still alive after the explosion of the clash had faded. But he was clearly not in a good shape and seemed to be injured.

His friends were risking their lives to buy him time, he knew that. They had no chance to win this fight. The rest of The Priest´s allies had so far not even interfered... and Super 17 had only been absorbing energy, but made no move to attack. They were toying with them.

But then suddenly everything changed.

xxx

The group of people appeared in a short distance to them. Instant Transmission, everybody realized after a short moment.

This time it was on The Priest to be shocked.

Before them were standing two versions of Son Goku and Vegeta, both them were SSJ4. To that came another 17 and 18 in their Super Android form. And finally the gods Beerus and Whiz alongside them.

They all could barely believe it.

"That can not be... where...?" The Priest stammered.

"It seems you are the Dark Priest we have been looking for," Whiz stated. "And as it looks you have made a partner," he said in Demigra´s direction.

"His offer was interesting and given the alternatives," the demon commented casually and with a grin on his face. Seemingly not taking the situation quite as serious as his partner did.

xxx

The two child versions of Trunks and Son Goten were as well starring at the group who had just appeared.

"Do you see that?" Goten asked his friend.

Goten´s father Son Goku and another Vegeta, both of them in a form they had never seen before, two more people who look like 17 and 18 and this other two weirdos, one of them looking like a purple cat.

"Yes, I think everything had just gotten even more complicated," Kid Trunks answered.

xxx

"You... were do you come from?" The Priest asked the newcomers. "How did you find me?"

"We are from one of the many alternate realities as you should be aware of," Whiz answered.

"Well, in our case it is just the same universe where Trunks over there travelled to all those years ago," their Son Goku added while he pointed at Mirai Trunks who was still hesitating in some distance to them.

Mirai Trunks on his part could barely believe what he was seeing, two more Super Androids and two SSJ4 and two gods on top of that. To their luck they seemed to be on their side.

"We... me and Lord Beerus... had noticed your actions some time ago and we had recruited Son Goku, Vegeta and these two Androids to help us to stop you," Whiz continued his explanation. "Sadly it was nearly impossible for us to find your exact location, since you were constantly moving between the dimensions. But then someone arrived with one of these time-machines who was able to tell us exactly where you were or at least where you would be in the near future."

"Yes, Bulma," Son Goku stated.

"My mother," Trunks realized. "You are from the same timeline where I travelled to, where we fought together in the Cell Games?" Trunks asked them, "and you Son Goku, you died when Cell self-destructed, but here later revived to fight Majin Buu?"

"Yes, that is right," he replied.

"Father," Trunks said, looking at the version of Vegeta he had first met these years ago.

"It is good to see you again son," the Saiyan Prince greeted him.

"The same to you father," Mirai Trunks answered. "Mother has brought you here you said. So it **worked**. Where is she?"

"In Capsule Corporation, together with the one from our world and the one from this," Vegeta told him. "Imagine, this impossible woman actually wanted to come here with us at first. When the only reason she came even with us was to give you the information about the Super Androids if you should need them. Of course we dumbed both of them of there. As if one version of her wasn´t already bad enough."

"**It worked**?" The Priest repeated what he had heard Trunks saying. "What have you done?" he asked Trunks in a quiet rage.

"Oh quite simply. You are not the only one who can move between dimensions, you know?" he replied. "So I send my mother with the time-machine to the world I had first visited to get us help. I knew something **this** simple had you probably not counted on in your plans."

The Priest was starring at both him and the newcomers with a blank look and still clear anger. But he wasn´t saying anything for the moment. At the inside his mind was racing, trying to find a way out of this.

On Demigra´s face clear shock was visible at this new development. He was not used to his or his allies plans being derailed like this. Normally **he** was the one in control. But his confidence was already returning very quickly. Especially when he remembered how he could turn this new group against each other.

"You are the same 17 and 18 who had helped us after the fight with Bojack," Trunks turned to the two Super Androids. "I never had the chance to thank you."

"Don´t worry about it," Super 18 said.

"Yes, no thanks required," her brother stated. "But whereever you were going to go, I think you should finally **leave** now."

"Yes Trunks, you need to stop Hildegarn **now**," Piccolo shouted.

Hildegarn, Mirai Trunks realized. From his surprise about all this, he had let himself get distracted. While he was still standing here, talking, the monster had gotten even closer to the town he was heading for. As he reached out with his senses, he realized to his horror that Hildegarn was already dangerously close to his target.

He knew he couldn´t make it in time anymore to stop him from attacking. Even with his new ki and speed it wasn´t enough. The monster was already nearing the city. If only he had left **earlier** like everyone told him.

They had finally done it. They had finally cornered The Priest and his allies and were able to beat them. But now even more people might die because of **one** stupid mistake.

"Trunks, I will bring you there," Son Goku called out. He used his Instant Transmission to appear right next to him.

"Stop them," Demigra ordered the controlled Mirai 18, who was the closest to them. The same order was also given to her brother, who since he was in his super form, was actually a serious threat to them.

This timeline´s Eighteen interfered and tackled her counterpart who was just reaching Trunks and Son Goku, who were about to teleport away. Through some unlikely coincidence however both of them ended up touching the two saiyajins just in the moment Goku used his technique.

A moment later, Mirai Trunks, Son Goku and the two 18´s had all disappeared.

They all were looking at what had just happened in slight surprise.

"Damn it," Demigra murmured.

"Forget about this," The Priest told him. "We need to do something."

"Don´t worry about it `partner´," Demigra stated. "All what this two sorry excuses for gods have managed to do is provide me with even more powerful servants. **You**," he turned to the two Super Androids and the SSJ4 Vegeta, " all of you. Listen to me." He reached out to them with his powers. "You are mine now. You are under my command. No **kill** them." He pointed at Beerus and Whiz...

... and **nothing** happened. None of them had moved from their place or showed any sign of following his command.

"Didn´t you hear me? I said..."

"We heard what you said," Vegeta responded. "Honestly, you are not the first sorcerer who thinks he can command us around."

"... Or mad scientist," Seventeen added.

"I... impossible," Demigra stammered. "My powers are not working. They must possess Divine Ki, **all** of them."

"Now that you mention it, Kakarot and me had actually become SSJ Gods years ago and integrated the ki completely into our own," Vegeta stated smugly, "and the two Androids..."

"We were designed to absorb energy," Eighteen stated, "for example from ki attacks... and make it our own. And Vegeta and the rest of our team were all too happy to provide us with some."

"No," Demigra exclaimed.

"So you are the infamous Demon God Demigra," Lord Beerus addressed him. "I knew coming here would be interesting. But with **you** present it is an even better challenge than I thought." He grinned. "Why don´t we test out how good?" He moved forward with lightning speed and reappeared right in front of Demigra, who was still recovering from the shock that his control didn´t work and why... and was caught of guard.

Beerus landed a vicious punch into the demons stomach and send him flying with another one in his face. Then he send out a powerful ki blast in the direction of the demon.

But once again the evil version of Super 17 interfered and blocked and absorbed the shot.

"Very good Seventeen," Demigra said as he saw what his servant has done.

"Yes master," the Android replied.

The Super Android was now attacking Beerus and forcing him backwards. Whiz interfered and backed his friend and student up.

Moments later however the Super Android received a kick at the side of his head by the newly transformed SSJ God Vegeta that send him flying away.

"Not bad," Beerus commented.

xxx

If they all thought thinks could not get any more crazy, they were wrong. Because in this moment another couple of fighters appeared on the battlefield.

Beerus and Whiz were, much to their surprise, looking at themselves.

The God of Destruction of the current timeline and his partner had just arrived on the planet, along with the two Kaioshins who they had just visited and who had teleported them to Earth. They had of course directly targeted the massive concentration of Divine Ki at this place.

"It seems this are our counterparts from this timeline," Whiz from the future universe stated as he saw them.

"That is really a surprise," the Beerus of this world commented. "We came to deal with this Dark Priest. But it seems we are already here."

"These versions of us are clearly from one of the other realities," the other Whiz said, "and a few of the rest too," he stated, looking of a few of the people who were there more than once. "Well, this is clearly a threat for more than one reality anyway." He shrugged with his shoulders.

"What a chaos," the older Kaioshin commented as he saw the battlefield, with multiple versions of the same persons present.

"You can say that," the younger one responded.

xxx

"No no no... I don´t believe this," Demigra yelled as he saw the arrival of the second version of Beerus and Whiz. "This just can not be." He sounded actually close to panic. That was more than unusual for him. But given what had all gone wrong in such a short time.

"Demigra, we can not deal with this now," The Priest called out to him. "Tell the rest of your slaves to buy us some time. We can not win against them. They are too many and too powerful. But we don´t need to. All I need is Trunks. When I can open the gate for my master, nothing of this here will play a role."

"I... yes, if you think so," the Demon Lord replied. He was still sounding a bit insecure. It would probably take a bit of time until he would be back to his usual pridefull self.

He used his powers again and took over the minds of Zangya and Bido. They and the others would serve a cannon fodder to held their enemies back.

"Let us go," The Priest said. One of his portals was opening behind them and they stepped through.

xxx

The SSJ4 version of Vegeta had just seen the attack his other self had landed on the Super Android. He would have liked the chance to fight this opponent again.

But he saw something that was more important.

The Demon Buu had managed to evade Piccolo and the native Android 17 and was once again targeting Kid Trunks and Son Goten.

But Vegeta moved faster. He appeared beside to the surprised demon and hit him directly with a Final Shine Attack. With one last loud shout, Majin Buu was completely incinerated.

"Are you two okay?" he asked Trunks and Goten.

"Of course we are... ahm `Dad´," Trunks answered.

"Good," Vegeta replied

xxx

Piccolo was being ambushed by the two former soldiers of Bojack. That was one of the reasons he had lost Buu earlier. Since he was far far stronger than both of them individualy however, they were not much of a threat to him.

But that wasn´t what truly mattered. These puppets were only there to distract them, to get The Priest time to get to Trunks. They needed to end this quickly.

He hit both of them at the same time and send them flying in different directions. Then he send two blasts after them that disintigrated both opponents.

xxx

Super 17 and his sister were now both facing his evil double, who was by what they had heard being controlled by this strange demon.

All three of them were similar powerful. And while their opponent had already absorbed some portion of energy from the attacks he had blocked, his counterpart and his sister had been given an amount of Divine Ki earlier just before the battle had started. That had Goku, Vegeta and Beerus `supplied´ them with by just shooting at them and letting them absorb the energy.

"You know, I could nearly feel sorry for you," 17 commented. "I know how it is having someone mess with your mind."

"You can say that," his sister commented. She remembered his they had once gotten under the control of their artificial created clones.

The other Super Android returned their looks and was actually grinning at them.

"I only fulfilling my mission," he stated emotionlessly.

"You know the routine 18," Super 17 said. "We immobilize him and then take him down."

"Yes," she replied.

Their enemy however did something unexpected. He fired two blasts of energy down to the ground.

They saw that one of them was heading to the injured Son Gohan and the other to Tarble and Tapion who were once again standing aside from the battlefield.

"Hey, look out," 18 shouted to all of them.

Tarble, even if he wasn´t a powerhouse, could easily evade the blast. Tapion, a experience mage and warrior, could do it even easier. But Gohan was in no shape to move quickly. They saw however that one of the two Whiz had decided to intervene and stop the shot before it hit him.

And while Tarble was already out of danger, SSJ4 Vegeta decided to move in anyway and redirect the second blast upwards into the sky, so that it couldn´t cause any damage.

"It is good to see you again brother," he addressed Tarble.

As the two Super Androids looked around however, they saw that their opponent had used the distraction to get away.

"Damn," 17 whispered.

"He is gone," 18 said.

xxxxxxx

At the same time Trunks and Son Goku had just appeared over the city that Hildegarn was approaching right now.

18 had still been struggling with her controlled counterpart. But she had gotten the upper hand and was now holding her other self in a stranglehold.

They saw that the situation was truly as serious as Trunks had feared. The monster was already close to the town border. Had Goku and the others not shown up when they did, he would have been too late to safe anyone.

"Goku... stay back," Mirai Trunks said to him. "I will deal with this. This is **my** fight."

Goku nodded to him.

"**Hildegarn**," Trunks shouted as he moved right in front of him. "I know you can understand me. I know about you. You might be acting like a mindless beast, but I know you are none. No you are worse."

The monster was now turning it´s attention to him, away from the city.

"You **like** to kill and destroy. You enjoy seeing other beings suffer," Trunks continued. "I know **this** is the way you were created by this madman and it is not fully your fault what you are. But it doesn´t change that you are a monster... and that is all you will ever be. Actually, a part of me feels sorry for you."

This words made Hildegarn, who indeed understood everything, only even more angry. He was a force of destruction. And he loved his role. Even under Demigra´s influence instead of Hoi´s, this hadn´t changed.

Nobody had the right to pity him... **nobody**. He raised his right arm to crush the small creature who dared to stand against him beneath it.

Just like Trunks had planned it.

"You are planning to attack this town and kill everyone you see. Just like you did the one before. But I **won´t** let you. This is the end for you," he declared.

Trunks send out a Burning Attack, just in the moment when Hildegarn was about to hit him. His new more powerful ki tore through the monster´s body like through paper and reduced it to it´s atoms. With a terrible scream that halled over the area, Hildegarn was disintergrated. A few moments later all traces of the monster were gone.

"Trunks, you did it," 18 called out.

He turned around to her and gave her a warm smile.

Trunks could feel how his SSJ God form disappeared. But just like Goku in the recordings, he knew he could still use it´s ki and merge it with his own.

_"Yes Trunks, you indeed **did** it,"_ they heard another voice coming from behind them. It was his own voice... The Priest.

They saw that he and his partner, the Demon Demigra, had appeared right next to them. **All** of them were now floating in the air, less than a half mile from the border of the town that Hildegarn had targeted.

"**You**," Trunks said.

"Yes, I admit your little plan had caused real trouble for me. I have clearly chosen the right version of myself," The Priest answered.

"But it wasn´t so hard to set up a little distraction and get away from them," Demigra stated, already returning to his old arrogance.

Son Goku took position next to them, ready to defend them.

"**Trunks**," he said, but his words were this time not directed at Mirai Trunks beside him, but at The Priest, "give up. You will never win. "You are not nearly strong enough to beat us and the others will arive any minute."

"You think I would actually give up?" The Priest said. His voice was having a dangerous undertone now. "You think I would surrender my plan? Never. It is my holy mission."

"I see. Then you leave me no other choice," Goku replied.

"**Exactly**. Lord Demigra, would you please do something... anything to occupy him for a moment," he stated. "All I need is some time with **myself**."

"If you insist," the demon responded... and fired a powerful ki blast... right at the two 18´s.

Both Androids were caught by the attack. They heard someone screaming, but they weren´t sure which version it was. All what they could see was an explosion and then two bodies falling downwards, somewhere to the outskirts of the city they had just saved.

"18," Mirai Trunks shouted.

Demigra used this chance to try to take a cheap shot at the SSJ4. But Son Goku caught his arm in the movement, while he was still concentrating energy for the attack and held it in a firm grip.

"You are a real bastard. I have dealt with your sort many times," the saiyan told him. "I will stop you here and now."

But just like Goku had predicted, someone arrived. It was only not who he had expected.

Super 17 was approaching them in fast speed. While he hadn´t been there in person, his advanced sensors had caught everything that just happened.

At first they weren´t quite sure which version it was. But Demigra could feel a bit of his own power surrounding this being. And then he took his place right beside him.

"It seems one of my servants has actually made it, very good," he declared. "Now 17," he said, "would you please deal with this nuisance."

"Of course `master´," the Super Android replied... and attacked.

But instead of Son Goku, he was firing at Demigra. He hit the demon at short distance into the stomach.

Demigra cried out, barely able to move from the sudden injury. Then he felt the Super Android grabbing him by the throat and lifting him up to his eye level.

"You think you can control me?" the Android said in a cold rage, "... me? You think you can attack my sister?" he said in an a bit different voice.

"How?" he asked weakly but horrified. "You were under my power... you are..."

"You forget one thing, it is part of my design to absorb energy and make it my own. The weakness of your control is Devine Ki... and on your own order I had absorbed a good part of it from both Vegeta and Beerus. And as soon as this energy became part of my system, your control over me was..." He left the thought hanging in the air.

"No," Demigra shouted, "How could I oversee something like that... how?"

With a quick grin, the Android fired a powerful black sphere of energy at the demon, that hit him and wiped him from existence.

"Now Son Goku," he turned to the SSJ4, "if I remember right, it is still one main objective of my programming to kill you, once and for all. If we are both here, why not take this chance? Let the two Trunks make things out under themselves."

"The Dark Priest is trying to throw the universe into chaos," Son Goku told him.

"And where is the problem with that?" Super 17 replied smirking. "I don´t care about all these pathetic being. I only care about fulfilling my mission," he said and charged at Goku.

As the two were fighting with each other, Trunks and The Priest were left by themselves.

"You have heard it Trunks. It is only you and me," he told him.

In this moment, Trunks could feel it. It was an attack. But not one like he had ever seen before. Telepathy, The Priest was reaching out to his mind.

xxxxxxx

18 was waking up again. She remembered what happened. She remembered... **everything**. Demigra.

By the way her entire body hurt, she was clearly in a bad shape.

She saw the other figure lying in a close distance from her, looking identical to herself. She could see no signs of live in her double.

Her counterpart was dead. She wasn´t sure how Trunks would feel about this. Or how she **herself** did?

Trunks, she thought.

Suddenly 18 had an idea.


	31. Chapter 31: From Beyond

**Chapter 31  
**

Trunks saw his opponent right before him. An opponent who was a nearly exact mirror-image of himself.

He knew Goku couldn´t help him. He had his hands full with the Super Android.

18 had been hit by Demigra´s attack... both versions of her. She was injured, maybe dead. Trunks remembered this painfully.

That meant he was alone... with **him**.

As The Priest had powered up, he once again showed the typical traits of a Super Saiyajin God, only twisted through the extremely dark form of energy he was using. It seems for him the transformation was not only temporally, with the possibility to merge the Divine Ki with the regular one like through the ritual, but permanent.

But Trunks also knew that The Priest was not like a regular SSJ God. He was something much darker and even more dangerous.

_`You don´t have to make it that difficult for yourself Trunks,´_ he heard his voice in his head. `_Just come and join me. 18 died because you stubbornly keep to refuse me. Do you not want to spare the others from the same fate?´ _the voice asked him `kindly´._  
_

Mirai Trunks couldn´t help it. Of course he didn´t truly took his `arguments´ serious. But they still managed to weaken his resolve. It were not only words. The voice... no, it was more than just a voice... the **suggestions** that he was planting... were dulling his senses and making it hard for him to concentrade. The thoughts of The Priest were directly invading his mind and weakening his own.

With other words, his mental powers were worming itself into his brain... giving commands... trying to lull him in... to brainwash him.

It was a mental battle... parallel to the physical one.

While all that happened, The Priest continued to attack him from the outside as well.

He fired one ki blast after the other, that were all swallowed by his portals, which reappeared and hit Trunks from different ancles that he couldn´t predict. And the longer this assault continued, the stronger became these blasts.

And slowly but for sure, Trunks became weaker. Not only physically but also mentally. He knew he needed to resist. He tried with all his will. While at the same time his body was trying to avoid the ki blasts that were coming from all sides.

But as he continued to struggle, he saw that what The Priest had done so far was not even the end. He was concentrating his ki, preparing to use another technique.

Trunks saw what he was doing. It wasn´t really something new. He had seen him doing something similar before. But this time it was somehow different.

Trunks saw the attack coming...

xxxxxxx

Son Goku was in a bad situation. But at least he knew that he was. He had faced this opponent before. It was one of the fight he lost, at least when he had been by himself.

He knew energy attacks were useless and they would only make his enemy stronger. That meant he had to limit himself to hand to hand combat.

Goku knew he didn´t actually need to defeat the Super Android by himself. The others would deal with the rest of The Priest´s group who he left behind and then come after them. They could arrive here any moment.

But the real problem was something completely different. The Dark Priest was now left behind with Trunks. And by what he had been told it would only take him minutes - if he could somehow force Trunks into a Fusion - to throw the entire universe into chaos. All that while he was being distracted by fighting the Super Android.

Ironically, normally he would be excited about fighting an opponent this strong. But right now he couldn´t afford it.

He knew in the past he had more than once wasted valuable time in important fights... and every time he came to regret it in the end. His overconfidence in battle and desire to fight the strongest possible opponent had put the world in even greater danger more than once. It was a saiyan trait, he knew... integrated into their subconsciousness.

He was no exception. He had allowed Doctor Gero to complete his Androids, instead of stopping him right away as Mirai Trunks informed him about the chance. He passed up a chance to stop the Demon Buu and left the fight to Trunks and Goten, two children. He had made his share of mistakes.

After the battle against the Demon Buu, that happened over 16 years ago in his world, he had done his best to overcome it. He would not make the same mistake again, he told himself.

"Hey," they heard someone calling out. It was Eighteen.

That meant at least one of them had survived Demigra´s attack. Goku wasn´t even sure at first which of the two 18´s it was. He had only gotten a few quick glances at them earlier.

Then he recognized her ripped and burned clothes were the same as the ones he had seen with the other Z-fighters. So this was `their´ Android 18, the one from this reality at least.

"Eighteen," he called out to her. "I need your help. Trunks is alone with the Dark Priest. We need to do something."

For a moment the Android hesitated. She was looking at Super 17.

"Seventeen," she said. "17, listen to me," she called out.

xxxxxxx

Trunks saw it coming. The Priest once again used the technique were he concentrated his ki into the form of two large green shimmering snakes. But this time it was a little bit different.

The snakes seemed to be a bit more solid than the last time, when they had just served as a conductor for whatever form The Priest had wanted to bring his energy into for the next task.

This time however it were the snakes themselves who were attacking him **directly**. Trunks was too surprised about this and already weakened from the prior assaults, to react in time.

The Divine Ki of his counterpart was concentrated so tight in them that the snakes had now practically physical substance... something that he felt as their heads were **biting** him. As their jaws were snapping around his limbs and began to bury themselves into his flesh.

And it was even worse, he realized. Trunks noticed it just a moment later. He had been, for the lack of better words, `infected´. The snaked had infused some of the dark ki-energy of The Priest into him, that was now flowing through his body.

Then a second later, he realized that he could not longer move freely. His limbs were beginning to turn numb. It was as if the foreign ki in his body was slowly paralyzing him. Somehow - he wasn´t even sure how - this ki was weakening him from the inside out.

"Bite of the Demon-Snake," The Priest said the name of the attack he had just performed, "it was one of the techniques I had developed if I needed an opponent alive. And now Trunks, open your mind to me. My ki is already flowing inside you. Every resistance is pointless now."

He made a gesture and Trunks felt an invisible force drawing him forward towards his opponent. The ki he had been infused with, somehow it was still following the will of it´s owner. While it was inside his body. He wasn´t even sure how exactly this was possible.

But he could also not really think about it with the constant pressure on his mind. He was drawn even closer. Normally he should still have been able to fight back, to concentrate hi own ki an break out. But the constant mental and physical attacks had already weakened him. Not only that, the months of nearly constant fighting and having the threat of The Priest hanging above them had taken their toll on him as well and were now showing. In all this time they had only been alive because their enemy allowed them to... and they **knew** it.

He remembered the desperation he felt. The stress of protecting people much weaker than him, people who could and even if they did, never **would** do anything to help him. The loss of friends, sacrificed for the lives of nameless strangers who would rather cheer for Mister Satan than acknowledge them. Just like The Priest had said.

Trunks was full of fear and doubts. For a short moment **he**, not the corrupting influence of his mind, but Trunks himself, asked himself if The Priest couldn´t be right. Like his enemy had wanted it.

"Give in Trunks," The Priest stated. "It will be better for both of us. More attempts to resist will only **hurt** you."

_`Give in.´_ He heard the voice in his head again. `_We will become one and together we will correct all what is wrong in this universe. Come to me.´ _For a short moment, Trunks wasn´t even sure why he should even be trying to resist the voice. What it said made sense after all._  
_

No, he thought. Another part of him realized what was going on. The Fusion had already started to beginn. First the mental connection, then the forced infusion of ki. Their body and mind were already beginning to become one. And he wasn´t sure how he could prevent this.

He saw The Priest reaching out his hand to him.

_`Come to me,´_ he heard the voice in his head.

His thoughts were merging with and in part corrupting or submerging his own... and Trunks was not longer even sure why he should not take the hand. He knew there should have been a reason... but he could not longer remember it.

xxxxxxx

_"17, listen to me,"_ Eighteen had called out to him. "What are you doing? The Priest has his hands on Trunks and is about to fullfil his plan. Don´t you remember what he did to you? Don´t you want to get back at him? I know I am **not** the sister who you know," she said, pronouncing the `not´, "but I am still... a version of her."

"I know** perfectly** who you are," Super 17 answered. "I don´t care. My mission is to kill Son Goku."

"What are you saying? Demigra is dead. His control is broken," 18 said.

"Demigra is gone, yes. But even before that I was not longer the same 17 I had been before. I am the Ultimate Android. My mission is to destroy Son Goku and his allies and then take over this world in the name of Doctor Gero and Doctor Muy," he stated proudly.

"That is Doctor Gero talking, try to resist it. Snap out of it Seventeen."

"Why should I? I am more powerful than I would have ever imagined. I can crush this world and even the strongest beings on it."

"But what about your freedom? You are doing this not because you want it, but because someone planted the order into your head. **My** Seventeen and I had killed Doctor Gero because we wanted to escape this," she reminded him.

"Freedom is a meaningless idea," Super 17 answered emotionless. "All what matters is power ans the mission."

"I see," 18 replied with visible bitterness. "You are not longer even a counterpart of my brother. All what is left is a slave of Doctor Gero´s programming.

"Eighteen," Goku told her, "we need to stop him at every price. Remember, your real brother is okay and with the others. But if we don´t stop both The Priest and him, we **all** will be lost."

A part of 18 wanted to scream at him... to tell him that he had not the slightest idea about her. That he knew **nothing**. But she held herself back.

She was floating silently in the air for a few moments, looking from Goku to Super 17 and back.

"Yes, you are right," she finally said. "We need to take him down. What can I do?"

"He has just one weakness that we know of," Goku informed her. "His power in this form knows nearly no limits... and he can absorb ki and grow even stronger than that. But while he is absorbing energy, he can not move at the same time."

"I understand," she answered.

xxxxxxx

Trunks knew that it was over. Only a small part of him even remembered why he had struggled and fought so much to resist in the first place.

The Priest´s thoughts were now nearly as prominent in his mind as his own. He could see his memories, his past, he knew his history, his motives... why he was doing what he did. He saw the anger he had felt, the devastation and burning hate, the source of his evil.

Trunks saw the destruction of The Priest´s home-world, by his own hand. He saw the demise of both his mentors, first his Gohan, then the older Dark Priest. He saw him, always searching for something... other worlds he had destroyed, even yet another version of Earth. Always searching... and finally finding what he had been looking for, **him**.

Finally he truly understood this enemy. But it was too late. He could not even control his own body anymore. He felt his will... and his consciousness... slipping.

The mental Fusion had already started, the physical one was beginning just now.

Trunks hands and the ones of The Priest were just touching... and the molecules of their bodies were starting to shift into each other.

At the same time their universe itself was shaking. Because what was just happening was, by **their** laws of nature, something fundamentally wrong, something that was never meant to happen.

But that were their laws, the laws of usurpers and pretenders - false gods that had claimed these universes as theirs for far too long. For the Nameless God and his followers it was a time to rejoice.

Their bodies had already halfway merged. Inside of their minds, The Priest felt a barrier, that separated a thousand universe from the entire rest... cracking.

_**"Yes."**_ Both of them now felt a voice, another voice reaching them through the realities... from beyond. **_"You did well my young friend." _**It was the voice of his master. The same that The Priest had heard in meditation sessions many times before.**  
**

For Trunks mind, what was left of it, the rest that was still aware enough to register it, it felt as if he was trapped inside a nightmare. He could not move, he could not fight back. All he could do was watch.

The Priest opened another portal. But this one was different than the ones before. It was wider, stronger. He opened it for his master.

He knew the Nameless God was not a physical being. His presence could return to this worlds easily on it´s own.

But the portal made it faster and easier to overcome what was left of the barrier. And, even fused with Trunks, The Priest knew he would need the backup from his master... quickly.

Even like this he knew he had no chance to fight this group of enemies by himself.

xxxxxxx

18 was firing a seemingly never ending barrage of low level ki blasts at her `brother´, just enough to keep his absorption ability working.

"And what do you hope to reach with that?" Super 17 asked her mockingly. "You are only making me stronger, slowly but steady. You know that right?"

At least so much of the real 17 was still alive in this being, 18 thought sardonically. Son Goku had told her to do this, while he was preparing his attack. She could only hope that the saiyan knew what he was doing. The truth was she hated to do this, even if this was not (longer) the Seventeen she had known.

Son Goku needed only a few seconds to prepare his special attack... the Dragon Fist. But he knew perfectly well that seconds could mean everything in a fight like that... against an opponent like this.

It was nearly like the last time. But this was not the same Super 17 that he and the 18 of his own world had faced.

This one didn´t have the consciousness of a friendly Seventeen holding him back from killing them. No, both parts of him were equally hostile and dangerous, just for different reasons. Eighteen was the only one who could hope to gain even a shred of mercy from this being, even if she was only a counterpart of his sister. For the rest of them though, Goku had clearly no such hope at all. Mirai 17 alone had once slaughtered the Z-fighters without mercy and he doubted very much that Hellfighter´s presence would do anything to change that for the better.

On the other side, this version had very likely less actual experience with him. It was very good possible that he didn´t even knew what the Dragon Fist technique was. So he wouldn´t recognize what he was doing until it was too late. At least Goku hoped so.

He knew he had probably only this one chance. Son Goku had gathered enough energy and had started to move.

The alternate Super 17 was still constantly hit by 18´s blasts, getting a small bit more powerful with every shot. But he was unable to move from the place. Something that he had obviously realized by now.

"And what do you hope to achieve with that?" he asked overconfidently. "Even if I can´t move right now, your attacks are useless... and your bare fists won´t even be able to scratch me."

Just like he had hoped, Son Goku thought. Super 17 was still hanging in the air in front of 18, perfectly believing that none of their attacks would be able to significantly hurt him... as he charged, using the Dragon Fist.

Ryuuken... the Dragon Fist... was a technique Goku had developed over the course of decades. It was based on the move he had made to defeat King Piccolo, back as he was still a child. He concentrated all his energy at a single point in his hand. Over the time he had learned to improve the method and form it into an actual technique. But only after the Cell Games he had finally perfectionized it.

Son Goku´s fist landed a direct hit on the still getting more powerful, but immobilized Super 17. The arrogant look on the Super Android´s face turned nearly instantly into shock as he registered the sheer power of the hit.

The blow broke through his augmented skin, burried itself into his bio-engineered flesh and M2 machinery... and Goku´s fist smashed a hole right through his chest.

Seventeen could not believe it.

"No... im-impossible," he stammered.

Super 17´s body fell down to the ground. He was not dead yet. Goku knew under normal circumstances he should have finished him off, but right now every second mattered.

Both of them flew in the direction they had seen Trunks the last time as quickly as possible. Son Goku could also feel the others approaching, who as it seemed, had stopped the rest of Demigra´s servants.

He also didn´t pay attention to the devastated look on 18´s face. He knew every moment was inportant or the entire universe... all universes... might be lost.

By all what he had heard about the Nameless God, it was a opponent that even he would be terrified to challenge... which he would not even know how to fight.

Of course his saiyan blood was still calling out for such a challenge, was telling him to be maybe just a little bit slower as necessary. To let it happen and have the chance to fight a being that the entire multiverse feared.

But he wouldn´t take such a risk risk - not again. It was too much depending on it.

xxx

18 and Goku had just reached him... moments later. But they saw that it already seemed to be too late.

They were not the only ones. The Z-fighters of both universes, both versions of Whiz and Beerus and also the Kaioshins had just arrived and joined them.

What they saw shocked all of them, even the most powerful and experienced.

The bodies of The Priest and Mirai Trunks were now already halfway fused into one... and they continued to merge together. But the process was very slow, as it Trunks was still resisting it. What was probably really the case. It seemed nearly painfully slowly as the two bodies were moving closer and closer together, merging, one molecule after the other.

What was even worse however, was that behind them another portal was opening. One that was different from anyone they had seen before.

And then... `something´... came through the portal. That was all they were able to call it. They were now sure how to describe it otherwise. What was just entering their world was different from anything they had ever seen before.

For the blank eye, it looked like some sort of sinister appearing dark fog that was moving and reforming itself. It reminded Goku somehow of the Demon Buu in his incorporal form. But his other senses told him of course that there was far more behind it.

It was a being from far `beyond´ their universe. They all knew it. What was to see with their eyes was only the peek of the mountain... a manifestation... the closest to this beings `true´ form - if it even had one - that their minds could comprehend.

All of them who possessed telepathic abilities could feel it´s thoughts and the unbelievable power behind them... and the sheer malevolent will that was driving it. They could feel the intention to destroy, to reform the universe in it´s image.

It was a formless consciousness... a incorporal but infinitely powerful spirit... that controlled the space - and maybe even the time - around it, instead of the other way around, manifesting itself in whatever form of energy or solid matter it wanted to.

They all saw how the black fog now reformed itself into the shape of a giant dark clawed arm that was slowly reaching out of the portal... and into their world.

"**That** is the Nameless God?" Piccolo asked loud.

"At least the form he had chosen to take for now," Whiz explained, the Whiz who had come with the group of time-travellers. "He has no real body like we know it. He is pure spirit and energy and can appear in every shape he wants to in the physical world. It is said that he can change reality alone by his will. That space and even time are under his control."

"That is unbelievable," Son Gohan said. "How can you even fight something like this?"

"We don´t know." It was the other Whiz who answered. "The knowledge how to fight this being effectively was lost in the millennia after the last war against him."

"Great. Just great," this wolds Vegeta commented.

"You say it," the other one remarked.

"Even worse is that it seems only a small part of the entity had actually entered our world so far. So what you are sensing is only a small part of it´s power," the first Whiz stated.

"You have to be kidding me," native Vegeta called out.

"Sorry, but we have no time for this," the version of Super 17 who was on their side interrupted them. "Our problem is getting worse every second."

He pointed towards the two Trunks and the portal, where the `arm´ of the Nameless God was continuing to stretch further into their universe.

Nearly all of them were looking at the giant claw, that was coming further and further out into their reality, in pure terror.

"Trunks is the key," Piccolo stated. "The Priest is the one who is holding the portal open and the Fusion between him and Trunks is what had shattered the barrier between our worlds and wherever this creature is, right?" he looked at the two versions of Whiz and Beerus and the Kaioshins.

"Yes," the older Kaioshin answered this time.

"This means we have to end the Fusion and we can stop this," the Namek said.

"But if we attack The Priest, we will hit Trunks as well," Son Gohan pointed out.

That caused all of them to hesitate for a moment.

"We have to somehow force them to separate," Goku told them.

"And even if we can´t," Beerus spoke up, "it is either him or the entire universe, hundreds of universes maybe," he reminded them.

The Z-fighters crinched. None of them exactly like that thought, but they knew he was right. It things came hard to hard, they would even have to sacrifice Trunks.

They all were gathering their ki... or at least they tried to.

They realized that some, the weaker under them, could not even move. The energy seemed to be literally dragged out of them, they became limb and at the same time they were frozen in place.

The two children Trunks and Goten and also Tarble and Tapion looked especially bad off. It seemed that the powers of the enemy affected everyone of them who didn´t possessed Divine Ki in a dangerous way. But even the God Ki users under them felt weaker than they should have.

"You should better stand back," Vegeta said to his son and his brother.

"I want to help you fight," Kid Trunks replied. It was what he would usually say. But it sounded insecure.

"There is not much you can do," his father told him.

"He is somehow weakening us," Son Goku stated. "But I don´t feel my energy being drained."

"He is already manipulating the world by his will," Whiz realized. "He is changing reality to make it harder for us to use our ki. If even more of his presence comes through, we are done for. His powers will grow even more and the effect will become stronger. We will be too weak to fight back."

That was what Son Goku had feared. How to fight an enemy who strips you of the ability to fight in the first place? he thought.

"We have to do something," he said and fired a high powered ki blast directly at The Priest, at the part of his body that was not yet merged with Trunks. But before it even reached them, the `arm´ that was reaching into their universe made a slight movement and the attack simply dissolved into nothing.

"Damn it," Goku called out.

The others tried to fire as well. But every time something similar happened. The two Vegeta´s each even tried a Final Flash, even at the risk of accidentally killing Trunks. But both attacks just changed direction and missed their target. This just couldn´t be true.

"I just don´t believe this," the native 17 said.

"We are helpless," Piccolo growled.

Both versions of Whiz reached out their arms and pointed their staff in the direction of their enemies. A strange glow surrounded them. For a short moment everything around the portal seemed to freeze in place. But then everything returned to normal and everything, the merging of the two Trunks and the `invasion´ into their world, continued.

"What are you doing?" SSJ4 Vegeta asked them.

"We tried to use a special technique of mine. One that I even under normal circumstances only use in extreme situation. Since it destabilizes the balance of this world as well," one of the Whiz explained. "In short, I am able to turn back time. But it is pointless. He is simply stronger than us. We try to reverse time, the Nameless God is forcing it to flow forward again," he explains.

"What is worse, with every failed attempt we risk damaging what is left of the great barrier even further and making it actually only **easier** for him to invade our word," the other Whiz added.

"Then what can we do?" Son Goku exclaimed. "There has to be something. I refuse to just stand by here and watch."

"I agree with Kakarot," the native Vegeta stated. "We will even try to rip Trunks and his counterpart apart with our bare hands if we have to. No matter how weakened we are."

The other Vegeta looked as if he was thinking the same way.

"Trunks," 18 called out to him. "Please listen to me. I am here, I am okay. I know you are in there. Fight back. Don´t let him use you in this way. Remember who you are."

The half-merged being now turned it´s attention to her.

xxxxxxx

The chaos was beginning, all over this planet and soon it would spread all over this universe... and then the others. So long until whatever force opposed the Nameless God on the higher plane would move in and be able to slow him down. But there was no telling how many worlds would perish until then.

The entity that had just entered their universe... from wherever dimension where it´s influence had still been present after being cut off from this realm millions of years ago and where it had dwelled... it was sending out a mental call - a telepathic message - that reached all over the planet.

It was a call that reached thousands of people at the same time... and very soon it would become millions.

It was spreading around the entire globe. This message however was not simply words or even concrete thoughts, it was something more abstract. It were influences, `suggestions´, that spoke directly to the subconsciousness of every being it reached.

The call spoke to the darkest parts of all of them. Their hate, their bitterness, their suppressed anger, their greed, their jealousy... and triggered them all.

So came it that all around the globe, seemingly spontaneous outbreaks of violence happened.

xxx

In the area of West City, a man armed with a shotgun stormed into a super-market and shot several people without warning.

At the town plaza of Central City a originally peaceful protest against some of the policies of the government, especially the protection of Mister Satan, turned suddenly and without warning into a violent riot.

Somewhere in Parcel City a single policeman who had been regulating the traffic was driven over by a car whose driver could not longer contain his rage.

The inmates of a prison in the Western Districts suddenly started to fight not only the guards, but also went against each other. It was as if everyone who held a grudge for one or the other reason was suddenly out for blood.

In the central bank of North City, a long dissatisfied and bitter employee deciding from one moment to the other to stab his boss to death with a letter opener he had just picked up.

A discussion of two neighbors in Pikes Town about a tree those branches reached into the other man´s property suddenly turned into a life and death fight between them.

In the still half destroyed ruins of what had once been Satan City, nearly a dozen different street gangs who had been lying low suddenly decided to come out and go on a rampage.

These and hundreds of similar incidents happened all around the world in a matter of only a few minutes.

And it became worse. So far it´s influence actually effected only a small percentage of the population. Even if thousands `heard´ it, not all of them actually reacted to, followed it... not yet. So far it were only the ones with a suppressed rage that was already hard to control, the ones who were easy to aggravate... or the ones who were simply very violent by nature.

But this would change very soon. The effect was getting stronger every seconds. Soon everyone who held even a shred of violence in his heard would be tempted to live it out... and the Nameless God would be there to direct this violence in the `right´ direction.

The Priest and his master didn´t even need to wipe the `unworthy´ of this world out. Under their guidence, they would simply get them to do it by themselves.

xxxxxxx

_Capsule Corp._

The now three Bulma´s present had until a minute ago been exchanging their knowledge about the Super Android process.

That was until their father came in and told them that they should see what was on the news.

Now they were together watching the reports about the sudden outbreaks of violence everywhere.

"Do you think The Priest has something to do with this?" Mirai Bulma asked her counterpart from this world.

"Given all we know?... I would bet on it," she answered.

* * *

**Author comments:**

For the `Nameless God´, I had used various inspirations. The most obvious is of course Satan. But also some creatures from Lovecraft (Cthulhu for example) had some influence here.

Another one is the egyptian god Apophis. This is also the reason The Priest´s powers manifest themselves in the form of snakes. This was also a pun on Beerus who is obviously based on egyptian cat-like gods like Bastet. While Apophis symbol, who basically played the role of the `God of Destruction´ in the actual egyptian mythology, is a snake.

Thanks for all the reviews for the last chapter.


	32. Chapter 32: What you wish for

**Chapter 32  
**

Eighteen... the part of the fused being that belonged to Mirai Trunks realized, she was still alive.

18... him, yes he remembered. He remembered who he was, what was happening here. That he was trapped.

He remembered when he thought she was dead. It devastated him. Another person he loved lost forever. Loved, yes... she wasn´t like the other one from his world. She was different.

But even the other one... the one who killed all these people, who had made his life a living hell... he knew `cared´ about him somehow, in her own twisted way. He knew that now. At least **now** she did. And they had **both** died.

It was one of the things that had pushed him over the edge. The last straw.

He remembered the words of The Priest: _"Eighteen died because **you** keep resisting."_

Mother, Son Gohan, father, Tapion, Tarble, his own younger self, Goten... they all would die. _"Don´t you want to save them?" _He had heard the voice in his head.

xxx

Meanwhile the `arm´ of the Nameless God was reaching even further into their world, taking a physical shape as soon as it manifested itself in this reality. While the rest of his presence was still watching from the other side.

Most of them could feel it´s presence, even from this side. It wasn´t Godly Ki like they knew it from Beerus and the other deities of their realities... but something else. Dark, malevolent and dangerous.

The rest of the being was still on the other side of the portal... waiting. Formless, limitless and practically almighty. Spirit and energy that existed between and in the realms.

Waiting for even more of his presence to enter this universe. While he was doing this however, another part of him was also taking influence on other events in a thousand other dimensions.

It were some of those universes that had **not** been cut off from his direct presence millions of years ago. That had been under his influence for all those time... and that had still managed to survive, while others had perished. In these universes however, there were also other forces that were standing against the Nameless God, slowing him down and limited his influence.

Their worlds had nothing of these defenses anymore. It had been the price for the peace of isolation that they had bought for themselves.

But these were dimensions that nobody from the worlds of Son Goku and the others had seen for 150 million years... and none of them most likely either would.

xxx

Trunks remembered the last months, one battle after the other, one death after the other. For every enemy they defeated, another one showed up, for every threat they overcame another one... and behind all of it was an enemy so powerful that they didn´t even have a chance.

Eighteen was the last he could take. He would not, could not, loose anyone else. So his resolve broke. He could not longer resist and lost everything.

But 18 wasn´t dead. He saw her right before him.

"Trunks," Son Goku called out, "This is a Fusion. I don´t know what kind of tricks he used to control you, but you are just as much part of it as he is. You should have just as much influence as he has. Resist it."

"Kakarot is right son, fight back," Vegeta told him. "You have to. It is the only chance we have to stop them."

"Trunks, don´t let him win please. I love you," she shouted.

Trunks heard every word they were saying. He knew they were right, the part of him that was still able to think for himself. He knew he needed to fight back or everything for them was lost. Their Fusion was now nearly complete, their bodies nearly completely merged into one... and so were their minds.

Trunks heard every single word they were saying. But so did The Priest. What one of them knew did the other as well. The Priest knew now everything that Trunks did.

Yes he did, Trunks realized. But so it was in reverse. He had now access to all the knowledge The Priest possessed.

In the same moment Trunks... or rather the part of their shared mind that was him... had this thought however, The Priest of course knew about it as well. They were right now practically two halves of the same mind and either knew what the other was thinking practically in the moment it did.

But that couldn´t negate **one** thing. Trunks knew his memories in this moment nearly as good as he himself did. He knew his fighting-style and his techniques. He knew how The Priest had manipulated his own ki to paralyze him and bind them together. And he also knew how he could use the same method to force them apart.

All he needed was to find the self awareness and the **will** to do it.

Why should he? Trunks/The Priest asked himself. He remembered all the things he had seen... the disappointment, the bitterness... the conclussions he came to - in one of his lives - He **knew** that this universe was not worth saving. Or did he?

He also remembered his life as just Trunks, where he had never given up hope. Were he had lived through everything and always tried to stay a good man.

_And only lost everything, another voice replied. _

But he had saved what was left of his world... and helped to save an entire other one.

_Worthless people who don´t deserve to live, the other voice said._

No, he knew this wasn´t true. **Nobody** was worthless. He would never accept that... never. He had seen far too many people die. And far too many **barely** survive. He remembered the terror, the fear... and the thankfulness in their eyes. This was something he would not simply forget just because this monster wanted it this way.

Trinks had made his decision.

_No, you are wrong, the voice of The Priest told him._ But Trunks was not longer listening.

And he had **not** lost everything. His mother was still there, the Z-fighters from the other timelines were still there... Eighteen was still there. They were right in front of him.

All he had to do was to act.

xxxxxxx

_Central City_

At the same time thousands of miles away, a man with a riffle was walking over the main street of Central City and shooting everybody who came in his sight. A dozen dead bodies were already lying in his path.

Until the police finally interfered and stopped his rampage through the bullet out of a sniper-gun.

xxx

Similar scenes happened inside the Royal Palace, that was under siege by a large crowd of people. Most of them had been part of the protest that had turned into a riot a few minutes ago.

While some under them had disagreed with the King and some of the political decisions he had made, others were only here for a single reason.

"Mr. Satan, Mr. Satan... Satan," the calls were coming from parts of the crowd. Unlike a few months back however, it were not cheers. It were shouts of anger.

It was known to practically the whole world that Mister Satan and his daughter were now living under the protection of the crown, right inside one of the side-wings of the palace. But not everybody was happy about this fact. Many people demanded for him to be handed over to the authorities, to be charged for the crimes of his `global fraud´.

And others who were simply out for his blood.

It were a few of them who had now broken into the palace.

"Mister Satan."

"Come out you old fraud."

"Liar." The mob was shouting as they were looking for the man they were after.

xxx

"They-they are here. They are after me. What should we do?" the same Mister Satan stammered now.

He, his daughter Videl and a small group of Palace-Guards were hiding inside one of the many rooms, behind a barricated door.

The three guards could only look at the pathetic man who they a short time ago had thought was a world savior. In truth the Mister Satan from a few months ago would - even if he was not a super-hero - have probably not been impressed by a small group of regular people. But the events of the last tournament had nearly literally broken his backbone.

The people **outside** however, as they realized quickly, were not the only threat.

Suddenly one of the guards raised his weapon and pointed it at Mister Satan. The call the Nameless God had send out, had in this moment found another willing target.

"This is all your fault you bastard," the guard shouted angrily at the former `World Champion´. "I won´t die here... Not for some pathetic fraud like you."

Just before the man could pull the trigger, Videl interfered and kicked the gun out of his hands. This gave the other two guards the chance to grab and restrain him.

Mister Satan was only starring at the scene with an open mouth.

"Dad get a hold on yourself," she said to her father. "They are out there and we need to defend ourselves. A few months ago you would have not been afraid of a group of nutjobs with a few guns. You might not be a super-fighter like Cell or Son Goku, but you are still **not** weak. Do you get this?"

"Yes... yes of course," he answered.

He knew Videl was right. It was just, whenever he saw someone looking at him he had to ask himself if it was not secretly another super-being. Whenever he saw the looks of hate and the contempt on someone´s faces, he had to remember this terrible `teenage boy´ from the last tournament... or Cell.

He didn´t knew who was strong and who wasn´t, who was a normal person... and who was a super fighter who could easily rip him to pieces. And he know he would possibly have to take this looks for the rest of his life.

xxxxxxx

For the Z-fighters and their allies all what was to see was a bright flash of light that came from the merged form of the two Trunks.

And then and as it ended, they saw two bodies falling to the ground.

"Trunks," half of them shouted in unison.

"Yes," Son Gohan called out.

"He **did** it," Piccolo said in triumph.

At the same moment the portal in front of them collapsed. They all could still sense the being on the other side for a short moment. They could nearly feel it´s glowing eyes burning into them through the layers of the dimensions. Then the monstrous shadow-like presence at the other end was suddenly cut off.

18 rushed forward and caught Trunks body in the air while he was falling.

"Is it over?" Son Goku asked. Whiz, the one from his dimension, was close to him and he had pointed the question in his direction.

"Did we win?" the kid version of Trunks wanted to know as well.

"I... I am not sure," Whiz admitted.

The portal had collapsed into itself. The Priest had fallen down to the ground and he didn´t look as if he was still able to fight. But there was something else...

"Trunks, are you alright?" 18 asked him as she was holding him in her arms. "Talk to me, say something," she pleaded.

"I... I thought you were... It is good to see you," he told her.

"The portal has collapsed. This `thing´ The Priest had brought in our world is gone," she said to him. "We have won."

"No, we have not," Whiz called out, "look."

He had known that something was wrong. While the portal was no more and The Priest was at least severe weakened, he could sense that the presence of the Nameless God was not completely gone.

It had been weaker, but still there. The other had possibly not noticed it. Either because they had no real experience with the presence of the Nameless God or they were just concentrating too much on the part of the being that was on the other side of the portal.

A look that he exchanged with his student Beerus - well, with both versions of him - and with his other self, told him that they had also realized what was going on.

Whiz was pointing at something that was floating in the air in a short distance from them.

The Z-fighters recognized it. It was a part of the `arm´ of the Nameless God, that had been cut off as the portal vanished. The sinister looking black claw was hanging unmoving in the air.

But then it started to move again. The talons of the decipated limp were the first to show live... moving... grabbing into the empty air.

Then it suddenly fell apart, dissolved... into the same black mist that it was formed from... and the mist started to spread into different directions. Yes, just like the Demon Buu, they remembered. Only even more dangerous.

The Nameless God, as they had repeatedly been told, was not an organic or even physical being. Every form he took was only a manifestation. And a part of his presence had already entered their world. This small part of the whole however could think and act on it´s own... and even this small part was a nearly inconceivable monster in it´s own right.

"Damn it," Piccolo called out.

"I don´t believe this," Gohan said.

The `black mist´ was collecting and gathering itself, forming small concentrations at several places.

One of the largest was where The Priest was now kneeling on the ground after his fall... and it was quickly moving towards him.

The Z-fighters and their godly allies saw what happened next. And all of them had a terrible feeling as they watched it hatten. For a few of them it took a few moments to really understand what was going on... but then.

The black mist, that they all knew was actually the formless presence of the Nameless God, was surrounding the body of it´s servant... and quickly vanishing as soon as it touched him.

It was merging with The Priest. They all watched as it was quickly flowing into his body. They all could easily figure out where this was leading to.

Son Goku decided to at least make an efford to stop what was going on and fired a Kamehameha X 10 at their enemy.

Just before it hit him however, The Priest suddenly vanished and teleported himself to a place a dozen meters from where he had been standing before. The attack missed and vanished at the horizon.

Moments later the mist had completely disappeared. All what was left was The Priest who was standing before it seemed completely recovered from what had happened to him just a minute before.

He was now - even in his non-powered state - radiating a strange purple aura around him and for a short moment they saw his eyes glowing up in a deep crimson red.

And there was another difference about him. One that someone was not able to see with the naked eye. His power was growing with every second.

xxx

A short distance away, another concentration of black fog was collecting itself around the broken form of the alternate Super 17. He had been defeated and was still barely clinging to life.

But that changed as soon as the dark substance was entering his body. He was standing up again. The damage to his body didn´t seem to play a role anymore and was also repairing itself at a unbelievable rate.

The Android now had a grin on his face. The substance - no, the entiry, he knew - that had just merged with his body was speaking to him as well. It offered him... the chance to do what he wanted anyway.

He saw himself standing above the burning remains of this world, just like he did once before in another timeline... in his far weaker form. He saw himself slaughtering the Z-fighers of this dimension one by one, starting with Son Goku.

All what the entity wanted from him was to help it cleanse this universe... something he would do with pleasure.

xxx

The Z-fighters knew the being standing before them was not just The Priest. A small part of his master´s presence that had successfully manifested itself in this world had merged itself with him.

His power, the God Ki users under them felt, had already doubled in the short time and it was still rising quickly.

And it came even worse. They realized he was not the only one. From beside them they could see another figure approaching. It was Super 17 - the other one, the one who was their enemy.

"Damn it," Son Goku called out, "I had beaten him. He was as good as dead. I am sure of it."

"He should be Kakarot. But it seems `as good as dead´ is not enough here," SSJ4 Vegeta commented.

"I didn´t have the time to make sure," Goku replied.

They saw that the Super Android was surrounded by the same deep purple aura as The Priest.

"I see. Then let us take him now," Vegeta answered. "You could give us a hand to." He turned to `their´ Super 17. "After all you should know more about this guy than anybody else, right?"

The allied Super Android nodded in return.

"I trust you others can deal with The Priest. Or whoever that is," the Saiyan Prince said.

"Of course we can. Just leave it to us," his counterpart replied.

The Priest and the other version of Super 17, both of them now all but manifestations of the Nameless God, had so far watched their exchange silently and in slight amusement. They had been using the short time to complete the merging of his energy with their own and build up their new strength.

"Possession," Whiz said, recognizing what had happened. "Being cut off from the rest of his essence had left him in a weakened state. So he is using physical vessels to focus his power."

"Yes, but I doubt that it is a complete one," Beerus replied. "I don´t think the Nameless God had a reason to suppress the will of his own servant."

**"You are right... puny creatures who call themselves gods."** They all heard the voice. They saw The Priest and at the same time Super 17 speaking. But they knew that the voice belonged to neither of them. It came from both sides, halling all over the place and filling the air as it it were everywhere.

**"I am here," **The Nameless God declared. **"So far only small parts of my essence that has entered this world. But it will be enough."  
**

Mirai Trunks recognized it as the same voice he remembered from the memories of The Priest.

**"******Part of it has merged with my herald in this universe for the time being. His will and mine are one**********," ******The Nameless God continued.

****"Just like the one you call Super 17 has willingly given himself to me. **And there will be other eager vessels for me in this world. At least so long until the remains of the barrier that your ancestors have created will completely disappear and my presence will reign free on these worlds once again."**

The two SSJ4 Son Goku and Vegeta, along with their Super 17 turned towards their chosen opponent. Having heard enough of the Nameless God´s words to get a full picture of the situation. They needed to stop him... **all** of him.

They all knew that the barrier that had been created millions of years ago had been seriously damaged - maybe beyond repair - from the events of the last months. Whiz and the others had explained it to them often enough.

They were lucky that the Fusion between Trunks and his counterpart was incomplete and had only lasted a short time. Otherwise it would probably be completely gone now.

**"I will have my new agents to bring my word back to these worlds, to spread even more destruction over these universes... and shatter the barrier completely. Then my reign shall beginn."  
**

"But for now," he said. This time they heard that it was truly The Priest who was talking.

He moved... even faster than he could have before. No, they realized a moment later, he not simply moved, he teleported.

He appeared right next to Beerus and Whiz. They had barely time to react before The Priest had drawn his sword and attacked them.

Whiz was barely able to use his staff to block the first strike. But to everyone´s surprise The Priest suddenly gained another boost of power... and a vicious smile formed itself on his face.

He had been intentionally holding back, some of them realized. Letting them think his vessel- The Priest - was weaker as he truly was.

Whiz staff broke and they all watched in shock as the sword that once belonged to Tapion cut through his body.

They all saw how the strongest god of their universe being killed - No, some of them noticed. It wasn´t their Whiz but the other one, who came with the other Z-fighters who came here to help them. But that made little difference. -

They saw his body falling, being cut in two halves. In a macabre way it reminded them of his Trunks had slain Freezer all these years ago. But this time it was the monster who won.

**"The first..."** the Nameless God announced, **"...the first of many."**

Beerus could only stare at what their enemy had just done.

"You have killed him," Beerus called out. "He was my partner, my friend, my mentor and you..."

"Yes, and many others of your kind and the Kaios will follow," their opponent replied. "You know seeing a `God of Destruction´ all riled up about the loss of a single life is a bit strange. And kind of pathetic. But what should you expect from a false god?" It was The Priest who spoke this time.

Beerus charged at him enraged, but their enemy just slapped him aside as if he were a mere joke.

"We need a way to stop him," the younger Kaioshin exclaimed.

"It seems the power and energy my master can provide me with is nearly unlimited," The Priest informed them.

He made a small movement with his hand... and behind them the town that had been threatened by Hildegarn a short time ago was wiped out in a giant ball of fire.

"No," Gohan called out.

"You bastard," Trunks younger counterpart shouted. "How could you do that?"

But the short distraction that his last action - the destruction of an entire town - had caused, was only what The Priest had been waiting for.

xxx

Meanwhile the seemingly random acts of violence and destruction around the world, that had lowed down a bit after the portal had collapsed, were now continuing with the same intensity as before.

xxx

The two SSJ 4 and Super 17 were facing Seventeen´s possessed alternate-world double. Beside the additional power the Nameless God had provided their foe with, one of their greatest problems was still that they couldn´t use any energy attacks against him.

"Seventeen," Goku addressed their ally, "could you buy us some time?"

"With pleasure," their allied Super Android replied before he engaged his counterpart.

Thanks to the Nameless God´s presence, his opponents power was right now much higher than even his own... that was already practically endless by any being however possessed the same strength **and** the one coming from their real enemy.

But that didn´t mean that he could not at least distract this creature for a few minutes.

While he was doing this, the two SSJ4 behind then were performing the Fusion dance.

One moment later they had merged into Gogeta in his SSJ4 form, the strongest Fusion that they had so far only used in the fight against Omega Shenlong.

The fused warrior charged at their opponent.

xxx

The Priest had only been waiting for them to be distracted. He used this chance to aim at Trunks.

This time he didn´t use the Burning Destructive Wave, that was meant for wide spread destruction, but a similar technique designed for singular targets... Eradicator Blast.

He fired it at his counterpart while everyone´s attention was still caught by the burning remains of the town.

"Trunks," he heard someone calling out as they realized what happened.

"You are the next one Trunks," The Priest declared loud.

He knew he had no chance to avoid or block that blast, especially not in his weakened condition. In the split second he saw the blast coming, he pushed at least 18 out of the way, hoping to give her a chance to survive... and then waited for the end to come.

But it never came... Someone else had also seen what The Priest was doing and acted.

Just in the moment the attack hit it´s target, Trunks realized to his horror that Vegeta had moved in front of him and took the attack in his place. He was now using all his energy to block the blast that was about to hit his son... even if it was clear that it would cost him his own life.

Mirai Trunks had lost his father before, but this time he was seeing it with his own eyes. He watched how Vegeta was able to stop the worst of the attack, but his body was burned and turned to ashes in return.

Then he felt himself been knocked away by the force of the explosion.

"Father," he heard his younger self crying out as he saw what happened and the child SSJ started to threw ki attacks at The Priest in wild anger.

In some distance in the background he saw Tarble starring in shock at what just happened.

But The Priest just swatted the blasts away like flies.

"Father had always a sense for the dramatic," he commented coldly.

Mirai Trunks was sure about one thing, he had not been this angry since the day Gohan... his Gohan... had died.

This monster had just killed her version of his own father and acted as if he did not even care. He brought himself back up to his feet.

He saw 18 on her knees a few meters from him. She was unharmed, at least that.

Trunks turned his attention back to the battle. The Priest was right now being engaged by 18´s stronger counterpart, the other version of Whiz, both Beerus and Son Gohan. But even this five together didn´t seem to be able to bring him down. Not with the Nameless God standing behind him.

His strength had multiplied, his energy seemed to constantly regenerate itself, every wound on his body was healing within moments. He even seemed to possessed part of the Nameless God´s ability to manipulate reality, Trunks realized, as he saw and attack fired by Son Gohan just vanish.

Despite all this Mirai Trunks was sure about one thing. He would defeat the creature The Priest had turned into... and he knew **how**.

xxx

Gogeta landed a punch on his opponent. They were still unable to use ki blasts, but the Fusion´s physical strength alone was overwhelming. The blow hit his shoulder and was strong enough to rip off his arm. But to their shock they saw a black substance - similar looking to the fog from a minute ago - growing out of his body and forming a new arm within moments.

"Tell me, how long are you able to hold this from? Ten minutes, that was it right?...** I can read your thoughts." **It was not The Priest but his master who said the last part.**  
**

They knew their enemy was right. Obviously they possessed more strength than even their enemy could provide his vessel with. But they could only hold this form for a limited time.

xxx

Trunks knew. There was a reason why The Priest and his master had just wanted to eliminate him early. He had seen his memories. Under them had however also been one crucial detail.

For the purpose of destroying the barrier that separated the universes, the Nameless God had given his servants also information about it´s exact nature... including the way it had once been errected. Not the exact details. And even then Trunks didn´t think that they would be able to replicate it. But it was enough to give him some ideas.

`Kaioshin, Son Goku, Father, Piccolo, Whiz and the others, do you hear me?´ he was sending out a telepathic message to the rest of the group. `I believe there is something we can do. I have seen it in the mind of The Priest. But I can´t do it alone. I need your help.´

xxxxxxx

The violence and chaos, that had long spread over the entire planet, was still going on. Hundreds had already fallen victim to it.

There were few, mostly people in charge of the authorities or the media, who suspected that it had be an outside force responsible for the world-wide disaster. It was a suspicion that was confirmed very quickly.

As they and all people of the planet, begann hearing a voice.

_"People of the planet Earth, My name is Trunks, I am a member of the group you know as the Z-fighters. I was there when Son Goku and his son fought Cell. I have grown up hearing about Goku´s victories over King Piccolo and the Red Ribbon Army. I was there in the fights against Ne-Me-Sys and the invaders from three months ago._

_Now we are facing a new threat, one that we are not able to stop by ourselves. We need your help."  
_

It was not simply Mirai Trunks telepathic voice that they heard, while he was talking he was connected with all the other Z-fighters and with the five gods who were present. And **they** in turn were mentally contacting the other Kaios of this universe.

Trunks had explained to them what he had found in The Priest´s mind...

Over 150 million years ago, the Ancient Gods had created the barrier... by bounding all the spiritual energy of their universes together and use it to repel the presence of the Nameless God from their worlds.

Of course the memories were not detailed enough to show **how** they had done this. The Nameless God would never be so stupid to show anyone, even his most loyal servant, how to banish him. In case of a situation like this one. The information was just enough to know how to damage the barrier effectively, but not enough to recreate it.

Beside not knowing how, there were other problems. Back then there had been hundreds of gods to perform the original ritual. Now they only had a few. At that time it had only been the 12 base universes. **Now** they had splintered into thousands of different timelines.

**Truly** recreating the ritual would be impossible. But on the other side, this time it was only a small part of the Nameless God´s essence that had invaded their reality... and so far it was only in this single universe. The original barrier still existed, even if it was heavily damaged. So maybe they had a chance.

Trunks had an idea... an improvised idea. Using the spiritual energy of all their realities or even of this single universe was out of question. They had not the slightest idea how to do that or where to even beginn. But maybe they could bound the people of Earth, the local part of the Afterlife, the people of Namek who they had already contacted and the Kaios together. Since it was only a small fraction of the enemy´s power, maybe it would be enough.

_"The acts of violence that have suddenly broken out world-wide are only a side effect of the true threat,"_ Trunks continued. _"A force is about to enter our world, a force so menacing and dangerous that we won´t be able to stop it if it succeeds._

_We have an idea, a possibility how to keep it away, to end all this. We are not sure if it will work, but we want to try."_

xxxxxxx

Somewhere, at some remote part of the planet, the three Androids 22, 23 and 24 were living together like the family they had once been... before Ne-Me-Sys had turned them in what they were now. Despite that they couldn´t remember their past, it somehow seemed right to them.

The main objectives of their programming had been easy... follow all orders of Ne-Me-Sys. Now that their master was gone and his orders with him, they didn´t see a reason to be hostile to anyone anymore.

Like so many other people, they were now hearing Trunks message. Everyone in the world did.

xxxxxxx

_"As you should know, we the Z-fighters have telepathic abilities. We can talk to each other without words. Some of us can read minds. That is the way I am contacting you right now. _

_We want to try something. We want to try... for a short moment... to bound us all together... all people in this world. Open yourselves to me. Then we will use our combined energy, our combined will for peace, to repel **him** from **our** world."  
_

While Trunks was holding his speech to the world, the others who were at the same time mentally connected to him, were still fighting the possessed Priest and holding him away from him.

_"Someone, one of our enemies, had once told me that he believes you to be worthless. That you are only good to hide behind our protection... and then turn on us if something goes wrong. Please help me to proof him wrong. Help us," Trunks announced to the world.  
_

At the beginning he had feared it would end like the time Son Goku and his father had tried to collect energy to fight the Demon Buu. But this time the people of Earth knew who the Z-fighters were, what they had done for them and that **this** was certainly not an illusion or a trick.

While Trunks was talking, he felt more and more minds and souls opening themselves to him. But this time they were not taking some of their energy to form a Genkidama or another attack, they were using all of it as it was still flowing through their bodies. It was like a Fusion. But it were not their bodies that were merging together, but their minds and hearts.

"Trunks... no, you won´t..." he heard The Priest calling out. He had heard his words as well... and he fired another attack on him.

But this time it was the super version of Eighteen who blocked the blast and just absorbed it.

"Thank you," Trunks said to her with a smile.

"Don´t mention it," she replied.

Trunks admitted, it was incredible. He could feel the live energy, the spiritual power and even part of the thoughts of many billions of people standing behind him. It was nearly as if every intelligent creature of Earth and Namek was for a short moment a single living being. The combined telepathy of the Z-fighters, the Kaios and the other Gods... and their own willing cooperation... bound them together.

For a short moment the Z-fighters could actually `see´ the presence of the Nameless God, like a dark flood that had invaded their world. And together with all of this world, they were pushing it back.

Everywhere around the planet, the malicious presence was being forced back. At countless places it´s influence suddenly ceased and many people who had been rampaging a moment before were suddenly standing around confused, not sure what happened.

Others, who had heard Trunks speech as well and had realized what was happening with them had already tried to fight the mental call of the Nameless God by themselves and were now completely freed from it.

"No," The Priest whispered as he felt the presence of his master being ripped from him.

Without the Nameless God to restore him, the body of the Alternate Super 17 fell back into his old, nearly destroyed state, not longer able to absorb energy... and Gogeta finished him off with a single attack.

The Z-fighters and their allies `saw´ in their minds how the dark essence was being pushed back even further... through the cracked barrier, where they could make out the rest of the shadow-like being... and reunited itself with it.

It was gone.

Then they used the spiritual energy of this world for one last task. To strengthen the damaged barrier and do their best to mend the crack.

_"You have done it,"_ Mirai Trunks send out for all to hear. _"Thank you."_

A moment later they released the mental connection they all had build up and everything returned to normal. The Earth, the people... their entire world. It was over.

"It, it is over?" Piccolo said. "We have actually done it?"

"Yes," Whiz answered a few moments later, "I don´t feel his presence anymore, none of it."

"Yes." a few of them begann to call out. "We did it."

There was only one thing left.

The Priest was kneeling in front of them - after all what happened now completely exhausted and out of energy. As it looked he was barely able to move.

"No..." he murmured. "Why?... Why has it all failed? Why am I still trapped in this wretched world? I was meant to explore new realities and conquer them. I..."

Before he could say anything else, he was cut off. To their surprise they saw that it was Tapion who had moved right in front of him in the blink of an eye... and drove his sword right through his chest.

"Tapio..." It was the last thing The Priest was trying to say, before his body sank dead to the ground.

"Tapion... you..." Mirai Trunks said quietly.

"I was returning a favour from a friend," he replied, his voice sounding somewhat empty. "Or to two of them," he stated, looking at Trunks younger self.

"So this was it? It is over," the native Android 17 questioned.

"Yes," Whiz replied, "at least for this time. The Nameless God is of course still waiting at the other side and some day he might try to return again. But that might hopefully take a long time."

"At least as long as you try not to do anything to upset the balance of reality," the old Kaioshin pointed out. "I have been warning people about that for a long time.

It is kind of ironic," he said, looking at the body of The Priest. "As a servant of the Nameless God he won´t go to our Afterlife. His soul will be send beyond the brink to join his master behind the barrier. For someone who hated our world this much, he had in a strange way still gotten his wish in the end."

"What is important is that it is over and the disater had been avoided for us all," the younger Kaioshin stated.

Yes it was over, Trunks thought. But he had lost Eighteen, he had lost his father... again. He couldn´t truly be happy right now.

xxxxxxx

_West City - five days later  
_

It was now nearly a week since the end of the battle. The wounds were still fresh... and so were the memories.

His mother - both of them - had been devastated as they found out about Vegeta´s death. Especially since the Dragon Balls were lost, so they could not even bring him back.

For his younger self it was probably the hardest, even more than for his mother. In opposite to himself he lost his father when he was old enough to actually remember it. But still when he was just a child. He knew that Tapion and Tarble were looking after his counterpart most of the time.

And he died protecting him, Mirai Trunks remembered. But his young self already told him that he didn´t blame him. He blamed nobody but their enemy, who was in some bitter irony also a version of them.

Their visitors from the other timeline had left at the evening of the second day. With the help of this universes version of Whiz, they returned to the world he had helped them to create years ago.

He and his mother(s) had said their goodbyes to their Vegeta, the other third Bulma and to Son Goku... but he said in particular also farewell to the other versions of Seventeen and Eighteen before they left.

xxx

It was seven in the morning. Mirai Trunks had just woken up from his sleep a few minutes ago. He had nightmares, he admitted. Nearly every night since that day. But they were different from the one before.

The nightmares by themselves were nothing new. He did have them for many years. But the ones he had now where not about 17´s and 18´s reign of terror or even about Hildegarn. They were about **him**... about the Devil with his own face.

It were the thoughts and memories from The Priest that he had seen and that were still somewhere in his head, replaying themselves in his mind all over again.

There was however one last thing to take care of... **her**.

He knew now the truth. Seventeen - Or rather the two remaining 17´s - had talked to him right at the evening after the battle. They had **told** him.

Trunks was right now walking through one of the small gardens around the Capsule Corp Building... around this home. The Capsule Corp. in his own world didn´t have them. With the destruction 17 and 18 had caused in their West City over the time, they never had the chance to grow.

It was here where his mother, both versions of her, had placed the graves of the ones they had lost in the last battle. His father Vegeta... or rather this world´s version of him, the god Whiz, even Beerus had agreed that this was a good place, but he would also get an memorial at Beerus home-world... and Eighteen.

As he approached the small graveyard, he was that someone was already standing before it. It was her.

She was standing directly in front of the grave of her dead counterpart. It seemed she hadn´t noticed him yet, despite her super-human senses and all her abilities. So obviously she wasn´t paying attention.

"18," he addressed her.

She turned around.

"Trunks," she said, sounding surprised... and a bit caught... as if she had been found doing something she wasn´t suppossed to.

That was probably very close to the truth given where she was standing.

He knew now... he knew who she truly was. If he was honest with himself, he could actually even understand **why** she did it, in some way. And he remembered the consequences if she hadn´t done it.

Would he had the strength to break away from The Priest if he had known the truth? He admitted a part of him was afraid of the answer to that question.

18 was dead... the woman he had started to fall in love with during the last months. He had begun to accept this by now. Just like his father, the one of this world and his own, like Son Gohan, like the Tapion he had known, like so many others.

For a moment he was struggling with his different feelings regarding the woman in front of him.

She had been one of the monsters who had been responsible for the ruin of his world. She had helped to kill his mentor and his true father. She was a mass murderer... and a liar. Or at least she had been.

But she had also saved them all. If she hadn´t helped him to return to his senses and break free from The Priest´s influence... they would have never gotten the information how to stop the Nameless God... it would have been the end. Beside that she had helped Son Goku to defeat her own brother. She had helped to save the entire universe, thousands of universes actually. All that should count for something, right? Even if her motives might not have been completely selfless.

He **knew** she had changed. To some degree she even had before the last battle, he thought. At least he believed so. How much of what she had told him during the last months was actually true? he asked himself.

He couldn´t help to resent her something for her deception these last days. But if he was completely honest, he had in some sense done the same thing. After her two `brothers´ had informed him who she was, he had continued to play along.

In first line because he wanted to see what was driving her. But also to a small part, he admitted, because he didn´t want to destroy the nice illusion.

The only question left was... what now?

"Eighteen, it is time to end this game." He said the words she had been fearing to hear the entire time. "I know everything."

* * *

This was the last regular chapter and the end of the final battle. A epilogue will still follow.


	33. Chapter 33: Epilogue: timelines

**Chapter 33  
**

_Mirai timeline, 1 year after Trunks return to his own world  
_

Trunks was looking upwards in the sky... his opponent in the air above him. It was a scene that reminded him very much of one he had been in before... his last fight against Cell.

"It is over for you Beby," he called out... right before firing an Buster Cannon into the air in his direction.

The parasitic lifeform, that was currently inside the body of one of his own M2 warriors that he had taken over, was completely vaporized as the attack hit him, along of course with his unfortunate host. This could have hardly been avoided.

Well, this `unfortunate host´ had been a member of the invasion force that Beby had formed to conquer and enslave first Earth and then the entire universe. So he didn´t exactly feel all **too** sorry for him. This guy had maybe been a victim when Beby had taken over his body, but he had also been an enemy, willing to slaughter the people of this planet.

But now, all this was over. He was looking upwards where all traces of Beby´s body had just been burned away. There would be no regeneration for the parasite.

They had won. Yes, it was over... for all of them.

His two partners had just defeated the rest of the invasion force.

Sixteen´s many ghetti-metal bodies had also been a great help in the fight against the M2 army. They might not be nearly as strong as his two allies have become, but they had done the greatest part of keeping the enemy troops away from the human cities.

All that gave Trunks time to deal with Beby himself and the M2 General Rilldo whose Body he had taken.

It was now one year ago that the last battle against The Priest and his master had ended. At least it was for him, since he had returned to his own time.

This was the last dangerous enemy he had to take care of. Cell, 17, Hildegarn, Ne-Me-Sys, Freezer, Bojack, Cooler, they were all gone, in this timeline and the other. And 18 was now on his side, just like the Great Ghetti Star - bounded to 16.

Beerus would most likely never become a threat... not without a SSJ around to challenge, not if he left. The only reason because the God of Destruction came to Earth in the other timelines and threatened the planet was because of Son Goku. Here Beerus would most likely go to look for him in the Afterlife.

A few weeks after his return to this timeline, he had telepatically contacted Master Kaio and asked him about Beerus whereabouts. Just as he had suspected, he was asleep at that time. So Trunks just asked Master Kaio to tell Beerus about Goku, should he ever come and ask him about the saiyajins and also gave him the instructions for the SSJ God transformation to tell Goku and the others about it.

Beerus would get to fight a SSJ God and would never have a reason to come to Earth. At least not for the next few centuries as Master Kaio had assured him. So long would it take until it would truly be necessary to destroy some planets in this area of space to create material for new ones. But by then, he and everyone he knew would be long gone.

For the coming future at least, the Earth - at least the one of his timeline - was save and all possible threats eliminated.

Trunks remembered how it came to all this.

xxxxxxx

_One year earlier_

_5 days after the end of battle against the Nameless God_

Eighteen had, without really being aware of it, been in a similar situation as Trunks. Like him she had problems to sleep. And just like him she had in her dreams... been seeing her own face.

In her dream she was sitting in her bedroom, right infront of her mirror. She was starring at her own mirror-image... and it was starring back... and it was talking to her.

"Now now 18," she heard a voice - her own voice - speaking to her. "You know, I have been watching you," the girl with her own face said. "`How the Mighty have fallen´... right 18?"

"I said it before. Leave me alone."

"I mean look at yourself," her mirror-image continued. "You were one half of the force that had been controlling your world. For 17 years nothing was able to stop you. You had been destroying and killing everyone and everything you wanted. You had thought you were invincible, didn´t you?" she asked with a mocking smile. "One half of the almighty Androids."

"And look at you now, hiding your identity, pretending to be your counterpart from this world, hiding away from your enemies like a dirty rat," the double stated. "Truly Eighteen, you are quite pathetic, aren´t you?"

She didn´t even bother to deny the statement anymore.

"Why can´t you just leave me alone Lazuli?" she asked again.

Lazuli... the name of the human she was created from... the human she once had been. She had learned it in the five years she had spend in Hell. It was a name she would never forget. The human former version of herself had been plaguing her with no end, for days, months... years. She wasn´t even sure how long exactly it had been that she was in this `personal Hell´.

"This is quite easy. Isn´t it obvious?" Lazuli asked her. "It is **you** who is bringing me back every time. You are keeping me here," she stated. "The truth is you want me here. A small part of you wants. I remind you... of what you have once been - of what you could have been."

"I know that," 18 responded, a bit unsure of herself.

Yes and she had always hated it, she thought. At least until... she could not quite remember when it had changed. But she didn´t reject the presence of her human double as much as she used to anymore.

"Tell me 18, when exactly did you stop being the `mighty Android´ and started to become... well, what you are now?" Lazuli, the face in the mirror, asked her. "Was it when Trunks had killed you? During our time in Hell? Or when you and 17 had made the deal with The Priest? Imagine, the powerful Seventeen and Eighteen, actually dependant on someone else to reach their goals. You could not longer just beat down everybody who was standing against you... you needed **help**," she stated mockingly.

"Or was is when you met your and Seventeen´s counterparts from this world?" she asked. "They were so different, weren´t they? and yet so similar."

Yes, 18 admitted, meeting their counterparts from this world had shook something inside of her, even if she had not wanted to admit it.

They were Androids like them. Even their behavior was sometimes very similar. Her shoppingtours, 17´s fascination with cars, it was all there. But still, every time she saw them, she was somehow reminded at her human self that she had met in Hell.

This two, they had all the advantages of being androids - all the power, the immortality. Damn it, she thought by herself, they had been designed to be even more powerful than them. Without the help The Priest had given them, she and her brother would have been weaklings compared to these two. But at the same time they interacted with others, lived under humans, had friends, families.

There they were, two Androids looking and acting exactly like them, being **stronger** than them... but at the same time they were being accepted, befriended and even **loved** by others. Deep down, she couldn´t help herself to feel jealous... to feel somehow inferior.

The Priest had promised to help them reach their full potential, the same power the other versions of them had reached in another timeline.

"The truth is 18, I am always with you and I always will," Lazuli told her. "I am **part** of you... just like you have become a part of me. You may have lost your memories of being me, but you can never completely get rid of me."

In this moment 18 woke up. She was inside her room in Capsule Corp.

As she looked out of the window she saw that it seemed to be early morning.

There was no point to going to sleep again, she decided... and went to a walk outside instead.

On her way she thought about what the phantom had just told her in her dream. As Doctor Gero had converted them into Androids, he had done far more than just change their genetic structure of outfit them with mechanical parts. He had warped them in body and mind. The memories of their human selves were gone. Their aggressions had been increased drastically - this in particular was something that Gero had found **very** useful. They possessed now combat instincts, speed and reflexes that would have been nearly impossible before... and that before they ever even trained as their Android selves.

They literally became different beings. And she and her brother had always considered the change an improvement in every possible way. They were now superior beings... stronger, faster, immortal. They were better than these pathetic humans could ever hope to be.

So why did she feel a sting whenever she had seen her counterpart interacting with humans as if she were a normal person? Was it simply jeasousy because there was one single thing that her counterpart had that she didn´t? Or was it possible that a part of her actually wished to return to being human - that a part of her actually missed it? she asked herself.

xxx

There out in the gardens, she met Trunks, right in front of the graves where the ones who had died in the last battle had been burried... including her counterpart.

_"Eighteen, it is time to end this game," he said to her. "I know everything."_

These words cut right through her.

"What do you know?" she asked insecure.

"I know that you are the 18 from my timeline. I know it was **you** who had survived Demigra´s attack," he said, looking for a short moment at the grave of her counterpart. "You have just switched your clothes and then pretended to be her. It was so simple actually."

"How do you...?" she stammered.

"Seventeen," he answered. "Do you really feel you could so easily fool your own brother - two of them actually? Beside that, the Super Android form of the other 17 had advanced sensors that are meant to scan and analyze other fighters. He was able to look through your deception easily."

18 had not expected this.

"You knew the whole time?" she asked.

"He had told me at the evening after the battle," Trunks replied.

_xxx_

_He remembered how the two Android 17´s had confronted him shortly after the battle, how they had told him the hard truth._

_"Trunks, there is something we need to talk about with you," the Seventeen he had met at his first journey to the past said to him. "18... there is something you need to know about her."  
_

_xxx_

"I see," she said. "I am the only 18 you have left now," she told him.

"So you say I should accept you just because there is no other version of you left for me?" he replied. "That is not enough."

No that was by far not enough, he thought. He remembered the other 18 who had died by Demigra´s hand, without him even noticing at first... thanks to her deception. But in the end it had been for the best, he reminded himself, before his anger could even beginn to take hold. If it had not been for **her** bringing him out of his lethargy, even if it was coupled with lies, The Priest might have won.

Just a moment after the words had left her mouth 18 herself realized how pathetic they had sounded.

"I am sorry," she said to him. "I am sorry for everything I ever did to you. I know it doesn´t mean much... but."

"It means **something** at least," Trunks answered. "I had never thought I would hear this words from you."

"I have **changed**," she stated. "After... " After you killed me and frigging proved to me that I am not invincible, that was what she should have said. "After I stopped thinking that I am better than everyone else," she told him instead, "I begann to see things differently." That was one way to put it, she thought. "And then, I had to help to kill my own brother. He... he was not longer himself. I had to do it. He was controlled by Doctor Gero´s programming. This was what 17 - the true Seventeen - would have wanted. I know you see us as evil... and you are right," she admitted. "But not even we would want something like that."

"I see," he replied. "But in the end it is just about your own freedom - you two never cared about anyone else."

"We didn´t. But after all what happened, I know now how it is to be on the other side. I know now how it is to be a victim... to be helpless." She remembered the countless lives, the countless faces, that had died by her hand, innocent and guilty alike. "I swear I won´t do this to anyone again, be it a human or someone else... and... I - I have truly come to care about you Trunks." Here, she had finally said it.

"I know that," he answered. "You have truly done enough to prove it," he admitted to her. "But that doesn´t change who you are and what you have done."

"What will you do now?" she wanted to know, at the inside afraid of the answer.

"I... well... I have been thinking about it," he stated. "I and mother will return to our timeline, probably in a few days. There are things we need to take care of."

"You actually decided to return?" she asked him a bit surprised. "You have friends here, people you know. In our world there is only..." She cut herself off, remembering who was responsible for that fact.

"There is someone... another enemy... out there in our world," Trunks explained. "I need to be there to stop him when he shows himself."

"Another enemy?" she asked.

Trunks nodded.

"He is not nearly as dangerous as the Priest or his allies were. But he **is** dangerous. Too much for 16 to deal with it alone, even with the Ghetti Star under his control," he told her. "As much as a part of me wants to stay in this world for longer," he admitted. Here with Gohan, he thought and Tapion and `Uncle´ Tarble.

"I see. But what will you do about **me**?" she finally asked specifically.

`Will you kill me?´ she couldn´t help to think the unspoken question. She didn´t think that he would do that after all what happened. And she knew Trunks wasn´t the type to screw around or toy with people anyway. If he intended to kill her again, he would have already done it by now. But she admitted she still couldn´t be completely if he was himself unsure what to do? What if he had not made up his mind?

It were irrationaly fears. If he had not made up his mind, he would not have revealed that he knew about her, would he? She knew anyway she deserved it a hundred times over.

"That... depends on you," Trunks answered, a bit hesitantly though. "You can come with us - we can surely need any help we can get - or you can stay here. Of course if you decide to return with us, you would have to stay hidden, since seeing you would cause a panic under the people. Either way someone will have an eye on you the entire time. Just to make completely sure that you won´t fall back into your `old ways´," he warned her. "Well, if you decide to come with us, it would mean it will be **me** who watches over you."

"I understand. So there **would** be some good part to come with you after all," she commented, the `playfull´ part of her was coming up again now. "We would spend **much** time together."

"18, as I had told you, I won´t forget who you are," he repeated.

"I know. But with some time, If I proof to you that I am different from before. Could you give me a chance?"

He could only look at her. He saw so much of the woman he had developed feelings for in her. But at the same time... He forced himself to remember everything she had done. He took a deep breath.

"I... I guess I can do that..." he said, "... a chance. But let me make one thing clear." He narrowed his eyes on her. "This doesn´t mean that we are in any kind of relationship or that we **will** be. It just means that I don´t completely..." He stopped himself before he ended this sentence.

"So you don´t completely rule it out?" She ended it for him. "Thank you Trunks, thank you." She grinned over-dramatically.

"Of course if it makes you feel better, you could also beat me up a little bit," she stated now mischievously. "You know, a bit of punishment for the naughty Android. If you want to go for **that** kind of relationship, I would get along with it as well."

Trunks turned deep red in the face as the implications of her words sank in.

"What in the world are you talking about?" he yelled at her.

But her smile only deepened at his reaction.

xxxxxxx

It was a few days later that they were returning to their own world and time.

The surviving Z-fighters and their families had assembled in front of Capsule Corp to say their farewell to them... at least for the moment.

In some distance was standing 17´s girlfriend with Marron on her arms. The little girl didn´t even know that her mother was gone... and as they had decided under themselves, it should stay that way for a while.

Just like everyone else she had believed for the last days that Mirai 18 was the same woman she had known since she was born. Telling her now that that had only been a lie, that the woman standing before her was a double and that her real mother was dead as well as her father, could make things even worse.

None of them was sure how the child would take this. Or if she would even understand it. She had never seen both 18s at the same time after all.

So for the moment they stayed by the story that Mirai 18 had told them, as much as they hated it. They would tell Marron the truth, when she was older and able to understand.

For now she would stay with her uncle 17. She had been told that her `mommy´ would have to go to a longer journey and would return as soon as she could. It was another lie, but probably better than telling her the horrible truth.

"So you are leaving," Gohan said to Mirai Trunks.

He nodded.

"There is another threat in my timeline that we will need to take care of."

"And you are taking **her** with you," Piccolo stated, looking at Mirai 18.

"Yes," he replied. "I believe she can be trusted... so far."

"I see," the Namek said knowingly.

"Goodbye Trunks," Tapion told him as well. "I will return to my planet as well in a few days," he informed him. "When I have time, I will return to Earth for a visit. I hope you will be here as well," he stated.

"I..." he replied. "We have made our decision. We would have liked to stay here in this timeline actually, but we can´t just leave our world alone. Especially not with a threat like this hanging over it."

"That means we will do it like we have agreed to," 17 stated, giving both Mirai Bulma and 18 a look.

"We will return to this world," Trunks replied. "But first we need to deal with this. We... we can not say where, in which timeline, we will stay yet." He exchanged a look with his mother.

"We will come back. At least for a visit, we promise that," Mirai Bulma told them.

The truth was there was nothing left for them in their world, not really. All their true friends and family were dead... all except 16.

"Goodbye nephew," Tarble said to him, just before they entered the time-machine.

It was a bit cramped, since the machine was not really designed to carry three people, even with the latest modifications. But the transfer would only take a few minutes anyway.

Seconds later the time-machine lifted off the ground and then vanished and Trunks, Bulma and 18 returned to their own timeline.

xxxxxxx

_Mirai timeline (the course of the last year)_

The `time´ he had told 18 he needed, had turned in the end out be be a bit shorter than he had expected. Or maybe it was rather that she managed to get to him faster then he expected.

It was about a month after their return, shortly after he had realized his plan to keep Beerus away from Earth, that they had what could pass as their first date. If you didn´t count all the times he was with her, watching over her.

They were walking though the town, 18 in a disguise of course - dyed hair, contact linses - talking and sitting together for the afternoon.

Like he said, he never forgot who and what she had been... and he never forgot about the other two versions of 18 he had known and that she wasn´t them.

It was also on that `date´ that they shared the first real kiss with each other. Of course he had his doubts. Of course he wasn´t completely sure about it. She was the same woman he had been fighting against nearly his entire life. But he knew for sure that she was a different person now. She was not longer the monster of once.

She was a woman... nearly the same as the other one he fell in love with. He knew she wasn´t her. But she was still so similar - so much the same - in so many ways. It was hard for him to sort out his feelings sometime. But he couldn´t deny them. Now that she not longer acted as a world devastating monster, he had to say he actually liked her.

He thought about his own father Vegeta and how long it had taken for him to truly change. Even at the time of the fight against Cell, he was still far from what you would call a good guy. Trunks remembered how Vegeta had refused to defend Bulma and his own infant self from Doctor Gero´s attack. It was only later, when he had actually died through Cell´s hand, that his father showed that he actually cared.

Why should she be any different? Why shouldn´t he give her the same chance?

It was another two months later that he and 18 `officially´ became a couple. Of course if anybody had told him this a year earlier or even six months, he would have never thought it possible. But by then he was completely sure... he **had** accepted her. She was a different person now.

Over the last year they had also kept preparing themselves for what they knew would come some day. When the tsufurian creature named Beby would decide to come and confront the last of the saiyajin, the race that had wiped out the tsufuru, who he considered to be his species... and then he would continue in his planned conquest of the whole universe. Just like he had done it in the other timeline that Ne-Me-Sys had shown him.

Trunks and 18 both kept training. He was getting better and better in mastering the Devine Ki and became even stronger than before.

16 on his part had been improving both the systems of the Ghetti Star and his Android bodies. All that for the coming battle.

Then, one year and nine days after they had travelled back to this timeline, Beby and the M2 army arrived on Earth.

xxxxxxx

_The present_

They had won. Trunks had just watched as both Beby and his host body had been disintigrated by his attack.

18 and 16 joined him a few minutes later. They had by now defeated the last of the M2 who had not been willing to surrender or join them.

Sixteen had been playing a great role in their victory. Not just because of his power - even when his connection with the Ghetti Star and his multiple bodies were a great help in fighting the large number of enemies - but for a completely different reason.

No... what he did was making a recording of the moment when Beby had taken over General Rilldo´s body. Like 16 had hoped, the parasite had been telling Trunks about how he had survived the destruction of the tsufuru as an infant, how he had created the M2 and how he had manipulated Doctor Myu and all of them from the beginning for his own agenda.

And then he transfered this recording to the M2 army.

The success of this idea was impressive. A great part of the M2 turned against Beby or at least stopped their attack as they realized that Beby had been using them and even killed Doctor Myu, who had created most of them. Only the most fanatical or the ones programmed to blind loyality continued to fight... the ones with free will however.

The remaining M2 were now standing in orbit above the planet, next to the Great Ghetti Star.

Down on Earth Trunks was standing next to 18 and 16 in his current main body.

Yes, they had won, he thought. The last direct threat to their world was gone.

He draw 18 closer to him and pulled her into a kiss.

In a few weeks they would return to the past, just like they had promised. If everything worked out, they would arrive just two or three months after the battle against The Priest had ended. They had made their decision and would live in the other timeline for the coming future.

Beside that at least some of their friends were still alive in this other time, they all knew that 18 would never have the chance for a normal life here, not without everyone who would see her to panic.

16 had agreed to stay here and fulfill the role of a guardian for this world. A few of the M2 who had broken away from Beby´s influence had even offered to assist him, while the rest had decided to return to their planet and try to create a new civilization for themselves.

So they made their decision to stay in the past timeline, at least for the coming years. With the help of their technology they would be able to stay in contact with 16 and send messages through time and space. Should something happen, a threat arise in this universe that they didn´t know of and that 16 would not be able to deal with, Trunks would be able to come back to the world where he had been born and help.

For now however they would beginn a new life in the other timeline.

End


End file.
